The Unforgiven
by esmtz
Summary: Metallica. Rochelle and Coach don't trust Nick. Ellis does but he's still nervous around him. What happens when they find out that one of them is a carrier for the infection NickxEllis. No changing into infected
1. Trust Issues

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Nick always seemed to have a problem with Coach. Even when he first met him he knew that he couldn't stand him and he didn't know if it was because Coach was older and kept insisting that they all stayed together as a group or if it was because of how he always looked and talked down to him. Nick figured it was probably both and still after spending what seemed like forever with him and their two other teammates his opinion of Coach still hadn't changed and apparently neither had Coach's about Nick. Once again Nick found himself on Coach's bad side as they including Ellis and Rochelle got off the boat and found themselves behind a building.

"Nick, where on earth is the gun bag?" Coach growled glaring at him, "Don't you dare fuckin tell me that you forgot it."

"Who the hell made me gun monitor? As I recall I thought it was your job to make sure we had it before Virgil got us away from that house!" Nick replied angrily.

Coach moved closer to him and looked at him darkly.

"I specifically said 'Nick grab the gun bag' or did you not notice that the rest of us were busy killin off the tanks that were on our asses?" Coach asked.

"Hey, if it hadn't have been for me they would have killed your sorry ass or did you not notice how badly you and Ellis were limping just before the tanks were killed?" Nick glared at him

"Exactly why I told YOU to grab it. YOU were closer to the gun bag and YOU were still able to run!" Coach told him.

"He does have a point, Nick." Ellis whispered.

"Yeah, Nick. Us three would have been ok dealing with the tanks considering they were on fire already." Rochelle sighed.

Nick growled at them and looked angrily at Ellis.

"Why the fuck do you always side with him, Overalls?" Nick asked feeling slightly hurt.

"Don't get angry at him! If it weren't for Coach we wouldn't have made it as far as we have!" Rochelle told him looking at him coldly, "You on the other hand would have most likely deserted us in order to save your own skin. After all you did tell us that the first time we all met."

Nick gritted his teeth.

"Don't you dare fucking twist my words around. I said that I would be better off alone. I DID NOT say that I was going to abandon you guys if we ended up in trouble." Nick told her.

"Well, whatever you said it doesn't change the fact that I don't like you and I don't trust you for that matter." Coach said.

Rochelle crossed her arms.

"Who would? I mean seriously I have no doubt in my mind that you will backstab us after all isn't that all you do?" Rochelle said having seen him just before the infection hit conning a man out of his money.

"I trust him." Ellis said quietly.

Nick snorted.

"Funny way of showing it, Ellis. Siding with Coach will always piss me off." Nick said.

Ellis fidgeted and looked away.

"Boy he ain't nuthin but trouble. Can't you see he cares for none of us here except himself?" Coach asked looking at Ellis.

"He saved us a whole buncha times and he coulda left whenever he wanted to, but he didn't. He's still here." Ellis said still looking away.

Rochelle looked at him noticing his face start to turn slightly red.

"Yeah for now, but who's to say he's not gunna bail on us later?" Coach asked.

"He ain't." Ellis responded.

"Ellis, why on earth would you trust someone like him? The only reason Nick's even with us is because we need his help for us to survive long enough to get to New Orleans." Rochelle said.

Ellis looked up and saw that Nick had been staring at him and suddenly found himself interested in staring at his shoes.

"Trust me the feelings mutual." Nick said turning to look at Rochelle.

"Well now that that's settled how about we get a move on. Virgil is waitin for us to get the gas." Coach sighed shaking his head as he picked up a crowbar that was on the ground trying hard to forget the fact that they didn't have guns.

Nick looked at Ellis who had already looked up and followed behind Coach. He shook his head wondering why Ellis had so much faith in him, but at the same time acted really weird around him.

'I guess I don't blame the kid. I must make him feel uncomfortable.' Nick thought thinking it was because that their personalities were completely different and because of the way he treated him.

Nick knew that he didn't really treat Coach or Rochelle 'better' then Ellis since he hated Coach and Rochelle was just plain annoying, but Ellis he was different. Yes he was annoying as Rochelle even more so, but somehow Nick found himself able to deal with Ellis a lot better then Rochelle. He was a little protective of the kid and couldn't help but feel hurt whenever he agreed with Coach or was the one healing him instead of Rochelle. Ellis didn't even bother healing Nick because for some reason he'd come up with some random excuse as to why he 'couldn't' do it, but then again Nick hadn't exactly been someone anyone could get along with very easily especially when all he's done is do nothing but insult their accent or telling them to shut up once they were about to start telling a story or having to yell at the person for accidentally shooting him all of which he was talking about Ellis. Nick sighed.

'I don't even have the faintest fucking idea why I even care who Ellis is healing let alone want him to take my side for once instead of fucking Coach's.' Nick thought.

"I don't have a problem leaving your ass behind y'know." Coach's voice rang out making Nick blink and realize that he hadn't started following behind the others.

Nick scowled.

"Whatever, as if I care if you guys leave me behind or not." Nick replied grabbing another pistol and went inside.

They each grabbed a health pack and saw that there were guns on a table. Nick was tempted to tell Coach that they didn't need the gun bag after all, but decided against it as he saw zombies just outside of the building and some ran in having already spotted them. They used their pistols and the crowbar to quickly kill what came in and then went to pick up a gun.

"I want you in front, Nick." Coach suddenly said.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"For the last time I'm not fucking going anywhere or was fighting through the swamps, going through that fucking carnival and filling up Jimmy Gibbs Jr's car with gas not prove that?" Nick replied.

"Just do what I say and get your ass movin!" Coach growled.

Ellis watched Nick walk ahead of him and he looked at him worried and then turned to look at Coach and Rochelle.

"Y'all shouldn't be treatin him like that. He's done nuthin to prove that he will leave." Ellis told them.

"Ellis, you may like and trust him, but I certainly don't have to. Once we get to New Orleans all I want is for him to be gone." Coach replied following right behind Nick.

Rochelle looked at Ellis sadly.

"Ellis, I'm sorry, but he's a bad guy you have to trust me on this." Rochelle told him.

"You don't even know him, Ro. You may not see it, but I do. He's not gunna leave and I can't believe that you and Coach have absolutely no faith in him. He's been with us since we all met up in Savannah. He's saved our asses, gave us pain pills when we needed it, healed…" Ellis paused.

Rochelle shook her head.

"You. He's healed only you and that's it. From what I see it looks like if he cares about anyone it's only you because he doesn't do that with me or Coach." Rochelle said.

Ellis turned red making Rochelle sigh.

"Don't get your hopes up. He already knows that Coach and I don't like him so he's probably just trying to get you to be on his side. He doesn't care, Ellis." Rochelle said and followed behind Coach.

Ellis stood there for a second before following right behind Rochelle.

'That ain't true. I know it ain't.' Ellis thought.

Author's note: lol Hi I bet you guys weren't expecting another story from me so soon. Only ten days after I finished making my last one. This story is strictly NickxEllis and no original survivors unless you want me to put them in. This starts at Hard Rain and warning there's another death in this story and no it's not Ellis, but if I make it a tragedy I guess it could be him as well. More then likely I'll just bring that other person back to life, which you guys already know who supposedly dies I'm sure. I don't exactly hide that fact now do I? anyway since its only NickxEllis I'm thinking I'll get more reviews now since before I'm pretty sure very few people actually liked FrancisxEllis so hopefully here's a better story. I'm sorry I have a thing for death scenes. It was hard coming up with another idea. I'm thinking this is probably the last L4D story I'll make, but don't right away count me out. Who knows I might think of a better one later.


	2. Hard Rain First Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

"Oh for the love of…why is the fucking tank here already?" Nick yelled as soon as they found themselves next to a playground.

Rochelle quickly tossed out a molotov and everyone watched as it continued to make its way towards them growling in pain from the fire.

"Watch out!" Coach yelled as he saw a charger charge directly towards Rochelle.

The charger had sent her a good distance away from the others and it started slamming her into the ground.

"I'm getting my ass beat! Help!" Rochelle cried out gasping for breath every time she felt her back hit the ground hard.

Coach and Ellis ran to go help Rochelle leaving Nick to deal with the tank by himself.

"Oh come on!" Nick yelled at them as he backed away from the tank that was quickly gaining on him while he kept shooting at it.

The tank roared as it hit Nick sending him flying towards a house making him hit hard against it. Nick struggled to get back up wincing as he felt glass shards piercing his back. He glanced behind him and saw that he had hit the window.

"Goddammit…" Nick whispered as he felt himself start to get pummeled by the tank.

The next thing Nick knew the tank keeled over and died the flames slowly starting to die down. He looked up and saw that Coach had made his way over to him and started helping him up. Nick growled.

"Why the hell did both you and Ellis go to help Rochelle? At least one of you guys should have stayed to help me out." Nick said.

"Be grateful I saved your ass at all, boy." Coach replied angrily

Ellis had given his pain pills that he had found in one of the houses to Rochelle since she had taken a beating from the charger. She took some and reluctantly handed the rest over to Nick. Nick glared angrily at her and quickly gave them back.

"I don't want them." Nick told her.

Rochelle sighed.

"Nick, I want to actually still be alive by the time we get to New Orleans and to do that you guys all have to be able to fight off the zombies plus those wounds on your back look pretty bad." Rochelle said trying to give them to him again.

Nick snorted and shook his head.

"I can find my own pain pills besides Ellis gave them to you and I can already see how reluctant you are about giving those pain pills to me anyway. I don't want help from the precious princess who's already got her body guards around." Nick replied.

"Nick, don't even start!" Coach told him glaring at him.

"Y'all I hear a spitter." Ellis said looking around for it.

"Let's get a move on people and try to keep up Nick." Coach said as they started to walk towards the playground again and started to pass it.

Nick breathed hard as he looked around for either pain pills or adrenaline that could help him deal with the pain while Ellis, Coach, and Rochelle took care of the regular infected that were rushing at them. The spitter eventually showed up and it spit where Nick was at. Nick killed it and then quickly limped to the closest house to get away from the spitter's acid. Nick sighed but then jumped when a bottle of pain pills suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Jesus fucking…."

"I got this for you man." Ellis said handing the pills to Nick.

"Don't do that, overalls." Nick looked at him agitated as he grabbed the bottle and took some of the pain pills, "Where the hell did you…?"

"In that ambulance over there." Ellis said pointing it out to him.

"Right."

Nick shook his head wondering why he didn't see it.

'Oh that's right the fucking spitter' Nick thought.

Ellis looked at him worried as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Thanks." Nick said as he started walking.

Ellis nodded and followed right behind him. Just as they caught up with Coach and Rochelle, a jockey and a hunter showed up and were trying to get on Coach. He shot at the hunter just as it pounced making him accidentally shoot a nearby car.

"Get it off!" Coach yelled as the hunter started tearing into him.

Rochelle was about to kill it, but instead the jockey jumped on top of her and started steering her away. It didn't get far before it fell off of her dead. She turned and saw that Nick had his gun raised.

"Thanks for that." Rochelle said.

"It's not over yet." Nick said watching as a horde of zombies started surrounding them.

Ellis quickly killed the hunter and both he and Coach went to help Nick and Rochelle with the zombies.

"Nice shot, Coach." Nick said sarcastically.

Coach growled as shot a zombie in the head.

"Boomer!" Ellis yelled as he aimed his sights at it and shot killing it instantly.

"See, Coach? Now that's a shot!" Nick said making Ellis turn red and Coach glare at him.

Suddenly Nick felt himself being pulled and then was suddenly let go.

"You might want to pay attention to your surroundings, Nick." Coach told him and then smiled at Rochelle, "Nice shot baby girl."

"Thanks." Rochelle replied.

As soon as they killed all of the zombies they started making their way towards the safe house.

"We're almost there y'all." Ellis said pointing at a sign that said that they were headed the right way.

"Yeah I can see the safe room door from here." Nick said.

Coach frowned as he looked around.

"What is it, Coach?" Rochelle asked as Nick and Ellis continued on ahead.

"Don't tell me you can't hear that." Coach said.

"What are you….oh." Rochelle whispered as she also starting hearing a noise and then yelled out to Ellis and Nick, "Guys wait!"

"It's all clear over here!" Ellis yelled out and practically ran to the safe house.

Nick frowned wondering why Rochelle seemed worried. That was when he finally heard the sounds coming from a witch. His eyes widened when he saw that she was sitting down in front of the safe room door.

"ELLIS!" Nick yelled out and ran after him.

Ellis, having not heard or noticed the witch, ran up the stairs and tried to stop the moment he saw her, but it was too late. He touched her and it was enough for her to scream and to take him down in one swipe. She started tearing into him, but one shot in the head and she fell dead next to him. Nick quickly helped him up.

"Aw, shit c'mon, c'mon, c'mon." Nick said as he helped him to his feet.

Ellis winced.

"I'm sorry, Nick. I didn't see or hear that she was…"

Nick forced the pain pills into Ellis's hands.

"Take them. I'll fix you up as soon as Coach and Rochelle get inside and we bar the door shut." Nick told him as he helped him inside and then sat him on the floor.

Shots were heard coming from Rochelle and Coach since apparently hearing the witch cry alerted more zombies. They stopped shooting as soon as they entered the room and Nick quickly shut it and they started barring it shut to make sure nothing could get in.

"You alright there, youngin?" Coach asked looking down at him as once again Nick kneeled down in front of him, took off his shirt, and started stitching him back up.

Ellis nodded, but then suddenly his eyes went wide as he remembered that Nick was still hurt from before. He struggled to move, but Nick forced him to stay still.

"Nick, you don't have ta….yer still…"

"Don't worry about it, overalls. Rochelle can patch me up as soon as I'm done with you." Nick replied.

Rochelle sighed and muttered under her breath. Ellis looked at her and then at Coach both of which looked like it was going to be a pain to heal Nick.

"Ro, you should heal up. Don't worry uh I'll heal Nick mahself." Ellis told her turning red from both Nick touching him and the thought of healing him back.

Coach and Rochelle looked at him in surprise. Nick raised an eyebrow wondering why this time Ellis actually volunteered to heal him.

"Ellis, sweetie, are you sure?" Rochelle asked.

Ellis nodded.

"Well, ok…"

"I'll help you out, Ro." Coach said as he got out his first aid kit.

Once Nick was done he started making his way over to get another health kit, but was abruptly stopped as Ellis pulled him back down.

"Ellis, what…"

"You still need to be healed, Nick. Now don't move because it looks like I'm gunna need to take out those pieces of glass that are still stuck to you now turn around." Ellis said.

"I thought you were kidding." Nick said.

Ellis winced now starting to feel guilty.

"Hey, look forget I said that. I just didn't think you were seriously going to heal me." Nick sighed as he turned so his back could face Ellis.

Ellis began to look nervous as he carefully removed the glass and once that was taken care of told Nick to remove his jacket and shirt and then started stitching him back up trying to stop himself from blushing the entire time.

"Sorry if it's not as good as when Ro does it." Ellis said as he finished and slowly stood up.

"You did good, overalls." Nick said putting his shirt and jacket back on.

"Thanks." Ellis blushed.

"Well, thank god we've got better guns here." Coach suddenly said already finished healing Rochelle and went towards where all the guns and ammo was at.

"I'm definitely not staying with this one." Rochelle said trading in the shotgun for an auto-shotgun.

Ellis and Nick quickly grabbed new guns as well and also picked up a pipe bomb and a molotov and then went to get more health kits. Coach grabbed his and then went towards the other safe room door.

"Ready y'all?" Coach asked.

"Yeah." Nick replied.

Author's note: Well this sucks. This story is getting almost no attention T_T and here I was so excited about continuing this story. I guess I'll just discontinue it after next chapter and move on to Gilmore Girls or something else (sighs) oh well I guess this story was a dud huh? I kinda figured I shouldn't have made another one because after doing so many I guess I kinda lose my touch I suppose or maybe this was a bad idea. No hard feelings I should be concentration on getting ready for school again anyway. I'm at least glad my last story was successful very proud of that and it definitely won over the other two stories. Yes as im more then likely not going to continue it will be considered my last l4d story because I so don't want to start another one and it end up being another dud so not cool. Yeah sorry truebloodboi I don't think it's going to get to the part we talked about at all which I was hoping to write, but that wouldn't be for at least ten more chapters maybe more. Unless I get some reviews or story alerts at least I don't see me writing any more because I don't want to write to a non existing audience er readers and writing for my own entertainment just seems kinda pathetic. It might be because of my summary though because I know this time I sucked at describing what my story was going to be about.


	3. Hard Rain Second Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

"Damn how many are there?" Ellis asked looking around.

There were quite a few regular zombies as well as witches that were aimlessly walking around sobbing. Not only that but they also heard the sounds of a hunter, boomer, charger, and a jockey.

"I've never seen so many witches in one place." Rochelle whispered as she saw two of the witches walk towards each other.

"Whatever happens don't alert any of them because it would only put us in more trouble. Plus it's bad enough dealing with only one witch. Knowing our luck someone's going to alert more then one." Nick said looking for a way to go to avoid them.

"For once I agree with you Nick. All we can do is move around the witches, pray that we don't accidentally shoot them once the infected attack us, and make it away from all these crazy assed bitches before a tank shows up." Coach replied.

Rochelle looked nervous as she looked at Coach.

"How about you stay in front of us this time, Coach? You've always been the one out of all of us who has a better chance of crowning a witch before it can take someone down." Rochelle said.

Coach nodded.

"Y'all better stay right behind me then. This is definitely a bad place to toss out a molotov or a pipe bomb." Coach said.

Nick hated to admit it, but Rochelle was right. Most of the time Coach was able to kill the witch before she could strike. Rochelle quickly followed behind him leaving Nick and Ellis to make sure nothing got them from the back or in front of them. Just as Coach passed the two witches who were near each other, the charger showed up and tried to charge him directly towards the witches, but Coach at the last minute quickly got out of the way and Rochelle killed it.

"Look out, Rochelle!" Ellis yelled as the hunter pounced on her.

The witches started to growl slightly as Ellis quickly killed the hunter and Rochelle slowly started to stand up.

"Move away now!" Nick yelled as he shot at the normal zombies who were starting to surround her.

Coach turned and saw to his horror that the boomer made its way towards Rochelle and without thinking Nick shot at it and bile went all over her. The witches started growing angrier as the zombies now kept Rochelle from moving away. Ellis took out his pipe bomb and tossed it. The zombies turned their attention to it, but not before Rochelle was taken down by both witches.

"ROCHELLE!" Both Ellis and Coach yelled as they quickly went to kill the witches.

"Jockey!" Nick yelled and tried to shoot at it before it could jump on either Coach or Ellis.

Rochelle had already lost consciousness because of how much damage both witches were doing to her. Coach headshotted one of them while Ellis kept shooting at the other one until it finally died. Nick managed to kill the jockey just before it could even attempt to jump. Coach put down his weapon and picked Rochelle up.

"Yer goin to be alright baby girl." Coach whispered to her and then glared at Nick, "What the hell were you thinking, Nick? Shootin the boomer so close to Ro!"

"It isn't my fault! The boomer just suddenly showed up and I didn't think that it was close enough for the bile to still get all over her! Even if I had known that I couldn't just go and shove the boomer away. The witches were too damn fucking close to it!" Nick told him angrily.

"Better you then her, Nick!" Coach told him coldly, "Because of you, we're down one member. Make that two since I'm gunna have to take care of her now! You and Ellis are gunna have ta lead and take care of the rest of the zombies until we get to the safe house!"

Nick mumbled angrily under his breath and moved past Coach. Ellis quickly followed after him.

"It ain't yer fault, Nick. Ro wouldn't have been able to get away even if you hadn't killed the boomer." Ellis told him and watched as Nick angrily shot at the few zombies that were still there making him wince.

They all managed to move past the witches and were able to get all the way to where the elevator was at. Before calling it Coach set Rochelle down on the other side of the wall next to the elevator and got out his crowbar and stood in front of her ready to defend her. Nick pushed the button and suddenly the sound of a tank reached their ears. They all groaned.

"Here I was hoping that it wasn't going to show up at all." Nick sighed as he looked past the elevator down to the very bottom and saw it start to climb up, "Jesus Christ!"

To make things worse the horde already started showing up and Nick was forced to push them away so he would be able to toss out the molotov as soon as the tank made it up there. Ellis shot the zombies that were in Nick's way and he saw the tank's huge arms and immediately tossed the molotov instantly burning the zombies along with the tank. Nick and Ellis immediately shot at the tank getting its attention and making a run for it back the way they came towards the stairs. Luckily it hadn't noticed Coach or Rochelle as it continued growling angrily. Coach quickly switched his crowbar for Rochelle's pistols and began shooting at the zombies that were trying to attack Nick and Ellis. He suddenly felt himself getting pulled, but then the smoker burned to death smoke going everywhere making Coach cough a little. The flames and smoke quickly died out and Coach was able to see that Nick and Ellis were able to take down the tank. He watched as they made their way back to him.

"That was too fucking close." Nick sighed.

"Thanks for the help, Coach." Ellis smiled at him.

"No problem, youngin. We should be almost there to get the gas. Once we do all we have to do is return to where Virgil dropped us off." Coach said as he pocketed the pistols and went to go get Rochelle.

Nick shook his head angrily making Ellis look at him as they got on the elevator.

"Nick?"

"It's nothing, overalls."

"Uh, ok?"

Once Coach got himself and Rochelle on the elevator, Ellis pushed the button closing the doors and it started going down. Nick glared at Coach.

"What the hell is yer problem now, boy?" Coach asked agitated.

"Why the fuck didn't you help us out?" Nick yelled.

Ellis looked from Nick to Coach worriedly. Coach growled.

"Nick, you know very well why I didn't help kill the tank. Need I remind you whose fault it is that Rochelle is hurt?"

"Coach, there was nothing I could do! She was still going to get hurt whether I helped or not!" Nick replied, "That doesn't mean anything you still could have helped us out! All you had to do was leave Rochelle there in the corner! The stupid zombies would have thought she was dead or wouldn't have noticed her!"

"What makes you so sure they would have thought that, Nick? It's obvious that you don't care about Rochelle. The only reason you even wanted my help in the first place was because YOUR life was in danger!" Coach said staring him down.

"No, Coach. The reason why I wanted your help was because we were supposed to be working as a team and lately it seems as though YOU'RE the one who doesn't care about keeping EVERYONE on this team safe!" Nick told him angrily as he gripped his hold on his gun.

"Listen here, Nick. I DO care about Rochelle and Ellis. You're the only one I DON'T care about and do you want to know why? It's cause I know what kind of person you are! You care only about yerself and if it saves yer life by putting someone else's life in danger you will do it! Yer a liar! You think everyone else is beneath you AND you could care less if someone were to die right in front of you and you wouldn't lift a finger to help them!" Coach told him.

Neither one of them had noticed that the elevator had already reached the bottom and Ellis was practically shaking in fright huddling in a corner of the elevator looking at them both with wide eyes. The look Nick was giving Coach only made Ellis shiver in fear.

"You don't know anything about me." Nick said coldly.

"Oh I think I do. If it wasn't for the fact that yer stuck with us in this zombie apocalypse you would have backstabbed us a hell of along time ago." Coach replied.

Nick gritted his teeth almost tempted to punch his lights out. Rochelle started to groan making Coach focus his attention on her.

"You alright there, baby girl?" Coach asked.

Rochelle shook her head still in a lot of pain from the witches tearing into her. After turning his head Nick finally noticed that the elevator doors were open and he stepped outside and turned to look at the others.

"Well, you coming or what?" Nick asked.

Coach glared at him as he also stepped out. Nick frowned when he saw that Ellis didn't follow right away.

"Ellis?" Nick asked moving to grab his arm.

Ellis jumped and ran out of the elevator. Nick felt hurt and backstabbed by not only Coach and Rochelle, but Ellis who he thought he had a better relationship with. He slowly followed behind them and then sighed when he heard even more cries coming from more witches that he couldn't even see out in this field.

'Terrific this day couldn't possible get any worse.' Nick thought.

Nick saw the sign that was just in front of him and he assumed that that's where the gas for the boat was at. He kept going forward hoping that he didn't accidentally walk into a witch since he figured that the others would just leave him to die. He almost walked into one, but quickly walked to the side and kept going. Just as he saw the others enter the safe room he felt something ram into him and almost immediately felt himself get slammed into the ground.

"Chargers got me!" Nick breathed out, "C-Chargers got me…"

Nick's vision started to darken and there were still no signs of any of his teammates bothering to come out and help him.

'They hate me that much?' Nick thought as he finally lost consciousness.

Author's note: Yeah Nick's not going to be too happy with the others in the next chapter. Since I've got at least four readers I will continue on with this story. I guess I overreacted last chapter since I'm used to always getting at least one review on my first chapter once my story has been uploaded and several story alerts, but still more then likely this will be my last l4d story for awhile if I do make another one later. Actually once again I know where I want to take this story so I've got it all figured out. I just hope that I get this story finished before I go back to school.


	4. Hard Rain Third Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

By the time he regained consciousness, Nick's back was practically killing him from the pain and the moment he felt someone kick him on his side he immediately sat up and gritted his teeth against the cry that he was just about to let out.

"Fuck what the hell?" Nick yelled as he looked up at Coach.

"About time you woke up, boy. We ain't got the time to rest here now get up." Coach said looking down at him.

"You're a fucking asshole, Coach! You guys leave me out there to die and then you want to leave when it's obvious that none of you healed me!" Nick said angrily.

Coach snorted.

"Yer fault for not keepin up with us, Nick besides I was busy healing Rochelle."

"Lame excuse for saying that you didn't want to heal me in the first place." Nick said as he struggled to stand up wincing in pain.

"Well why would I? You pretty much admitted that you would be ok abandonin Rochelle!" Coach said coldly.

"Look who's talking. You and Ellis were the ones who ACTUALLY abandoned me not the other way around!" Nick growled.

"Yer still alive, Nick which means we actually cared enough to get you away from that Charger!" Coach told him.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"Yeah at the last minute! I have never done that to any of you so I know that I didn't deserve that!" Nick replied.

Both Ellis and Rochelle started to look guilty.

"Nick, I'm…" Rochelle started.

"Don't even start defending him, Ro! He was willing to let you die to…" Coach said.

"Oh yeah? Like how you guys just did with me? There's a difference, you guys did that on purpose. What I was trying to do was to kill that fucking tank before it killed both Ellis and me! What would you and Rochelle have done then if we had died?" Nick said angrily wincing again from the pain in his back.

Ellis bit his lip as he took off the health pack that was on his back and went towards Nick. Nick glared angrily at him.

"Don't you dare even think about touching me you fucking hick!" Nick growled menacingly, "Also you can forget about me healing you anymore! You want to play that game and side with Coach? Fine!"

Ellis started shaking tears filling his eyes. Rochelle stayed quiet as she brought out her health kit and looked at Nick wondering if it was ok for her to heal him. Nick sighed.

"I'm not mad at you, Rochelle." Nick said in his own words saying that it was ok for her to heal him.

"Just leave him, Ro. He ain't worth the trouble." Coach told her.

"You're such a fucking hypocrite, Coach! Looks like it's you who's the one that's ok with abandoning a teammate!" Nick told him.

Coach didn't respond as he continued to glare at him while Nick took off his jacket and shirt and Rochelle began to heal him back up. Once she was done Nick put his shirt and jacket back on, picked up a health pack, gun, and an adrenaline and then finally the gas for the boat. Coach, Rochelle, and Ellis also grabbed some gas (Rochelle got another health pack) and then stood ready at the door.

"Now we're ready to go." Nick told Coach.

"At least keep up with us this time, Nick." Coach told him.

Nick snorted shaking his head.

"Nick, wait I'm…." Ellis started, but as soon as the safe room door was open Nick was the first to leave the room.

"Oh this is just great it's freakin storming out here." Nick said barely able to see and hear because of the rain.

"Stay in sight y'all don't get separated!" Coach yelled out.

As they began making their way back through the field, Nick started to wonder where all the witches went since he could no longer hear their cries. He frowned barely hearing a cry coming from Rochelle. He turned to see if something was wrong, but then he felt a jockey jump on him and started trying to steer him away, but almost immediately the jockey was killed. Rochelle ran up to him and sighed.

"I said 'Nick, look out for that jockey' but I guess you didn't hear me." Rochelle said.

"How could I with the rain being this bad?" Nick said agitated, "I hate this fucking kind of weather!"

"We can't worry about that now! We need to get to the elevator. Coach is probably there by now." Rochelle told him.

Nick rolled his eyes.

'Who the fuck cares about Coach?' Nick thought.

Rochelle had turned around to check on Ellis.

"Ellis, sweetie, are you doing alright?" Rochelle asked.

Ellis nodded his eyes glued on the back of Nick's head. Nick snorted.

'Of course the kid's behind me. Stupid hick.'

Once they got to the elevator, Coach was already there waiting for them.

"Lights out y'all I hear a witch and I think I know where she's at." Coach said.

They all turned their lights off as Coach pushed the button making the elevator head back up. Once it reached the top and the door opened, Coach stood in front of the others and headshotted the witch.

"Nice shot!" Rochelle said as they all got out of the elevator.

"Killin a bitch is easy for me." Coach said.

"Look out!" Nick yelled when a spitter spat in their direction.

They all moved out of the way and Ellis quickly killed it before it could get away. He looked at Nick who didn't bother to look his way.

"Let's go." Nick said as he started making his way to the stairs.

Ellis looked down sadly and followed right behind him.

"Well this is gunna be a pain in the ass havin to walk in the water." Coach sighed.

"Maybe we can find a way to not have to walk in the water." Rochelle said as they started going downstairs to the second floor.

"Hey we can get on top of that tank over there!" Nick said pointing at it.

"Yeah, I see a ladder! We can get on this walkway over here and jump on to that building that almost doesn't have a roof!" Rochelle said.

"Well, it works." Coach replied

Just as they got on the building and then jumped down into the water in front of the ladder, they heard a smoker somewhere nearby, but they couldn't see where it was at along with a boomer and a hunter.

"Keep your eyes open for any sign of them!" Nick yelled as he started climbing the ladder followed by Ellis, Rochelle, and then Coach.

Before Ellis could reach the top the smoker wrapped its tongue around him and dragged him back to the ground making him injure his leg.

"Help! Smoker's got…"

The smoker died in a puff of smoke and Ellis started coughing as he looked up and saw that Nick had been the one who killed it with a weird look on his face.

'Why the fuck did I…instinct it was all because of instinct that was it.' Nick told himself sighing thinking he should have just let Coach or Rochelle save Ellis instead.

Ellis smiled slightly as he made his way back to the ladder and climbed back up. They continued making their way across the tanks until they had to drop down and continued on from there until they had no choice but to walk in the water.

"This is going to be a problem when the tank shows up." Nick said.

"We can't even use a molotov to help kill it." Ellis said limping slightly.

"Is yer leg alright there, boy?" Coach asked looking at him.

"Yeah it's just kinda hard walkin in all this water." Ellis replied.

"Ellis, maybe you should stay closer to Coach and me." Rochelle told him as it was obvious to her that he was trying to stay as close to Nick as possible.

Ellis shook his head.

"What if Nick needs help? Cause if he does he ain't gunna get it from Coach." Ellis said.

Nick hadn't heard them from how loud the rain was and continued on ahead. Once he turned the corner he saw that there were a lot of the regular zombies aimlessly walking around. He also heard faint noises coming from the same boomer and hunter that they hadn't yet killed. He started killing the zombies that had spotted him and started running towards him and by chance he also killed the boomer.

"Lucky me." Nick said.

He was caught by surprise when the hunter pounced on him and before it could dig its claws into him, the hunter was shot right off him. Nick turned his head and saw that Ellis had killed it and was looking at him worried.

"You alright, Nick?" Ellis asked.

Nick snorted as he started standing up.

"Thanks, Rochelle." Nick said when he saw her come into view.

Ellis looked hurt and Rochelle looked at him confused. Nick turned back around and started shooting at more zombies.

"Well, at least we're almost there." Coach said from behind Ellis and Rochelle.

"Yeah that's a good thing right, Ellis?" Rochelle said looking at him.

Ellis put pressure on his injured leg and went to catch up with Nick. Both Coach and Rochelle sighed.

"That boy ain't never gunna learn." Coach said.

"Coach, don't you think that maybe we might have been a little too hard on Nick?" Rochelle asked.

"No trust me he's just acting like he's a victim to get y'all on his side instead of staying on mine." Coach replied.

Rochelle frowned still feeling guilty since before she never really thought of why Nick acted the way he does. The look she saw in Nick's eyes just before they left the safe house also had her convinced that he really was telling the truth. Plus not once had he given them any proof that he would abandon them and to her right now it just seemed like Coach was treating him this way simply because he hated him.

"Maybe we should catch up with them." Rochelle said.

Coach nodded as they started walking and shooting whatever zombies that Nick and Ellis had missed. Surprisingly the tank didn't show up just as Nick and Ellis made it to the safe house and waited for Rochelle and Coach to show up. Nick closed the door just in case any of the special infected tried to get at them. He then went to get ammo for his weapon and sat down against the wall and refilled it trying hard to not look at Ellis. After about a minute of silence Ellis walked over to Nick and sat down next to him.

"Nick, will you please just listen to me for a minute?" Ellis pleaded looking at him.

Nick didn't respond he just simply stared at his gun.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have listened to what Coach was accusing you for." Ellis swallowed, "I guess I just…"

"You don't trust me, overalls and I get it. You seem to be more comfortable around Coach because he doesn't treat you the way I treated you before." Nick said.

"I DO trust you, Nick. I know that you wouldn't go and leave any of us to die. It's just it's kinda hard to tell if yer tellin the truth or not since you did say you wanted to leave when we first met and instead you ended up stayin which I'm glad and all that yer still here." Ellis told him.

Nick smiled sadly and looked at him.

"I would never leave you guys to die. I would say that I would, but I won't. I just have a problem with trusting people especially with Coach and the way he keeps attacking me I'm positive now that he really would leave me behind to die, but then again I don't blame him for not trusting me either." Nick said.

"He wouldn't leave you behind, Nick. I'd make sure of that. You've saved our lives lots of times and without you we'd all be dead by now. Yer a good guy and I don't see why Coach doesn't see that in you." Ellis said smiling at him.

'I don't see how you see that in me, overalls.' Nick thought.

Nick pulled out his adrenaline and gave it to Ellis. Ellis frowned looking at it and then back at Nick.

"What…"

"It's for your leg, Ellis. You seriously didn't think you were able to hide the fact that you hurt it when the smoker grabbed you did you?" Nick said.

Ellis blushed.

"You noticed?"

"Hell yeah I did, overalls. You did a bad job if you were trying to hide it." Nick smirked.

"O-Oh…"

Nick chuckled.

"Hey, Ellis?"

"Yeah, Nick?"

"Don't tell the others that we had this talk."

"Ok."

Author's note: I probably won't add the next chapter till next weekend since recently i've been watching Gilmore girls all week long a disc per day except Fridays where its two discs plus I do want a little bit of a break anyway. I've been playing Hard Rain recently just so I can remember what the campaign looks like (I hardly play it because it's the one I don't really like) so sorry if the description of the setting is a bit off. Nick just couldn't stay mad at Ellis for long now could he lmfao. Yeah…I don't see how anyone can. Im really glad that all of them are in character despite the fact that Ellis isn't telling any of his Keith stories and his accent is terribly missing. Sorry I don't really know how to write his accent very well and I kinda have bad ideas when it comes to Keith stories considering the one in my last story was a bit weird with it including Ellis's 'party'.


	5. Hard Rain Fourth Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Once Coach and Rochelle had made it to the safe house, they quickly grabbed ammo and then decided to head on out again. Nick and Ellis stood up and followed right behind them; Ellis taking the adrenaline as soon as they got outside.

"This weather is not fucking letting up!" Nick yelled.

"Well how about you and Ellis stay with Rochelle and me next time that way we won't have to worry that sumethin happened!" Coach replied turning slightly to face him angrily.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. I thought you guys were right behind me, but I guess not."

Coach was about to reply when Rochelle stopped him.

"Can we please just go? I really want to get the gas to Virgil so we can get out of here." Rochelle pleaded.

Coach sighed and nodded.

"Let's move people." Coach told them and made his way downstairs.

The moment they started climbing a ladder to cross on the roofs of houses, zombies spotted them and started climbing the houses to get to them. They were easily fended off and eventually they had to get off the roofs to start walking in the water again.

"Charger!" Ellis yelled out as he saw it charge at them.

"This would be a lot easier if it wasn't for all this fucking water!" Nick said moving out of the way.

The charger passed by all of them and before it could move to attack one of them Coach killed it.

"This ain't the time to be complainin about the water, boy!" Coach told him.

"Oh so you think it's ok having to walk through all this water when a TANK can still run at us and we have no way of getting away from it?" Nick glared at him.

"No, but complainin about it isn't goin to help the situation, Nick!" Coach replied

"Boys please! Not now!" Rochelle yelled.

"Y'all I see the garage sale!" Ellis yelled out happily as he made his way toward it.

"Not so fast, overalls!" Nick sighed as he struggled to keep up with him.

"Sorry, baby girl." Coach told her as he followed right behind Nick.

Ellis hadn't noticed the boomer that was hiding right next to it and before Ellis could get out of its reach, it vomited all over him.

"This stuff sucks, man!" Ellis cried out.

"Boomer!" Nick yelled as he saw it start to claw at Ellis and quickly killed it.

Zombies immediately started surrounding Ellis as he struggled to push the zombies away from himself. Nick started shooting at the zombies he could get without accidentally shooting him. Suddenly a hunter pounced on Ellis making Nick quickly move to his side and shove the thing off of him. He couldn't get a direct hit on it because of the all the normal zombies that were still blocking his view and had started attacking him as well. Coach was able to see that the hunter was just about to pounce again and immediately shot at it before it could get on Ellis again, who was already standing up and helping Nick deal with the zombies.

"Get this thing off of my head!" Rochelle cried out.

Coach turned and saw that a jockey had gotten on top of Rochelle and was steering her away from them. Before it got too far, Coach caught up and killed it. He then felt himself being pulled through the water until he felt himself being suffocated by a smoker which was also clawing at him.

"Help!" Coach yelled out.

From how bad the storm had gotten, Rochelle hadn't seen where the smoker was at. Finally having killed all of the zombies that had surrounded them, Nick and Ellis went back to look for Coach and Rochelle.

"Smoker!" Ellis yelled having spotted and shot at it until it died.

Coach coughed as he started to get back on his feet, but then he felt someone helping him up. He looked up and to his surprise saw that it was Nick with an annoyed look on his face.

"I owed you one for before with the tank. That's all that this is so don't expect me to help you out again." Nick told him as he helped Coach to his feet.

Coach glared at him as he yanked his arm away from him.

"I'm sorry, Coach. I didn't know where you were at." Rochelle said sadly looking at him.

"Don't worry about it, Ro." Coach told her and then looked at Ellis with a smile on his face, "Thanks youngin."

"No problem, Coach." Ellis replied, "You alright?"

"I'll be fine. It'll take more then that smoker to take me down. " Coach said.

"Fucking asshole." Nick muttered under his breath noticing that Coach hadn't thanked him let alone even shown any signs of gratitude towards him

"Good cause we still need you around, Coach." Ellis told him.

Nick growled turning back around to head back towards the garage sale. He knew that the kid was right, but he couldn't help but feel the need to just stay away from Coach. That wasn't the only thing that was bothering him. Nick refused to even admit to himself that he hated Coach now because of a completely different reason.

"Nick! Hey, Nick wait up!" Ellis called out trying to catch up to him.

Rochelle sighed shaking her head. She was hoping to check out at least one of the houses to see if they could find some pain pills or adrenaline, but by the way Nick wasn't even bothering checking any of the houses for supplies told her that they weren't going to have time to look. If they did they would most likely get separated. As they passed the garage sale and made their way back towards the playground they hadn't seen any signs of the normal infected around which was the only good thing that came from the boomer's barf. They were able to kill all the zombies that were near that area. Unfortunately as soon as they passed the playground the ground started shaking and they watched in horror as the tank made its way towards them.

"Shit!" Nick yelled as he started shooting at it trying to back away as fast as he could through the water.

"Tank!" Ellis cried.

Having seen Nick first the tank immediately started running towards him, but then stopped as it lifted a rock and threw it towards him. Nick panicked when he felt his back hit something solid. He turned his head slightly and saw that he had backed up into the wall of the house that was next to the playground.

'This is not my fucking day.' Nick sighed as he saw the rock just about to hit him.

"NICK!"

Nick was caught by surprise when someone pushed him out of the way making him fall into the water. He quickly turned his head just as he heard a splash. His eyes went wide with fear when he saw that Ellis was the one who had pushed him out of the way and was now lying face down in the water with the rock right next to him. The tank continued making its way toward Nick when it suddenly changed course and went for Coach and Rochelle instead who were shooting at it.

"Get the boy to the safe house, Nick! NOW!" Coach yelled over the rain and the tank's growls.

Nick didn't need Coach to tell him that. He automatically dropped his gun and went towards Ellis, turned him over so his face wasn't in the water, picked him up and started running towards the direction of the safe house. He saw the red door not far from where he was and for a second thought he was in the clear because he didn't see a single zombie. A low growl was heard and Nick started to panic.

'If I don't get Ellis to the safe house now he's going to die! I won't let that happen!' Nick told himself.

The sound was getting closer and Nick started to realize that it was a hunter. He was just about to open the door when it clawed at his right leg making Nick gasp in pain and tried to kick it away from him. Nick got the door open and quickly placed Ellis inside. He shut the door and before he knew it the hunter had bit his leg in the same place that it had clawed him and Nick went down screaming in pain. He then felt even more pain coming from his chest and he right away knew that it had pounced on him and was clawing him to death. Just as he felt himself start to lose consciousness he heard the sound of a gun go off and the hunter fell off of him.

"Nick! Oh shit!" Rochelle cried as she helped him up.

"Where's Ellis?" Coach asked.

"He's inside…" Nick barely managed to say as he tried to keep himself conscious.

The last thing he remembered before passing out was being helped into the safe room by Rochelle and Coach picking up Ellis.

Author's note: I know I updated a little earlier then what I said, but I was starting to get nervous since I had no idea how to start off this chapter like I always do, but I still manage to come up with something. Sorry if I have run-on sentences, misspelled words, or anything that you think needs fixing since I tend to not notice these things while I'm writing. Also I know I've never been perfect so I'm assuming there's something wrong in all my chapters in all my stories that I just haven't seen yet. You guys should read my other stories just to see how differently I write now. My Harry Potter stories were awful when I wrote them lmfao. I know I definitely improved from then to now. Anyway I'll have the next chapter up soon whenever I'm not busy this weekend playing Gears of War 2 because this weekend is 20 times experience points. It starts Thursday and lasts until the end of Saturday or the start of Sunday.


	6. Hard Rain Rescue

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Nick hissed out in pain as he slowly opened his eyes and saw that Rochelle was bent over him; stitching up his wounds on his chest.

"Finally awake huh? That hunter got you good, Nick." Rochelle said glancing at him worriedly while she was still stitching him up.

"How's Ellis?" Nick asked as he started to remember what had happened. He winced as he felt the needle enter his skin.

"He's fine. He's already awake and wondering if you're doing ok. Coach has been insisting that he lie down because we were afraid that he might have had a concussion, but he's actually being stubborn about it. He says he won't until he knows if you're going to be ok." Rochelle replied keeping her eyes glued to the wounds on Nick's chest.

Nick looked around and saw that they were in a separate room. It hadn't occurred to him until then that he was lying on something soft instead of the hard cold floor that he was sure they, or at least Coach, would have made him lie down on. He had a small smile on his face, but it quickly changed to a look of worry.

"You didn't tell him did you?" Nick asked quietly as he looked up at her.

Rochelle sighed as she looked at him.

"No I didn't. Nick what did that hunter do to your leg? It doesn't look good even after I stitched it up it looks really badly swollen." Rochelle asked as she felt his forehead and winced, "You're even burning up!"

"Rochelle, please I don't want him to know. You can't tell him not even Coach." Nick told her.

"I don't know, Nick. I'm more concerned about your leg then your chest." Rochelle said biting her lip as she finished stitching him up and sat back so he could sit up.

"If Ellis knows he's going to worry more about me then himself. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Coach celebrates because he won't have to deal with me anymore." Nick said quietly.

"Nick, what are you saying?" Rochelle asked dreading the answer.

"That fucking hunter clawed at my leg and then it bit at the exact same spot! Ro, you know what that means…" Nick whispered trying to make sure Coach and Ellis didn't hear him since he could hear both of their voices outside of the room.

Rochelle looked at him in horror.

"Nick, I'm…"

"Please don't fucking tell Ellis about this. If I do start to turn before we get to New Orleans you have to be the one to kill me." Nick told her.

Rochelle swallowed.

"But won't you get killed anyway once we get to New Orleans?"

"I can't just suddenly disappear on Ellis. He'll just come looking for me. I'll just play it cool and stay with you guys until we'll eventually get separated at the evac station." Nick replied.

"You can't hide it from him forever. If not now he will find out when they've…I can't believe you're ok with this, Nick." Rochelle said.

Nick crossed his arms and sighed.

"Better me then the kid. Besides I've had a shitty life so I don't really have a reason to live through this anyway." Nick said as he looked down at his right leg.

Rochelle looked at him sadly as she started to understand why he didn't want Ellis to know. She reluctantly nodded.

"Ok I won't tell either one of them." Rochelle said.

"I want him to hate me…"

"What?"

"He can't….I don't want him to…He can't have a relationship with me." Nick struggled to say.

"It's a little late for that, Nick." Rochelle told him.

Nick shook his head.

"I'll make him hate me that way he doesn't have to feel anything when they…."

"Ro, is he awake yet?" Coach asked.

"Yeah we'll be right out!" Rochelle replied as she stood up.

Nick quickly covered his leg wound and slowly stood up almost falling down again if Rochelle hadn't caught him by the arm.

'They're going to notice' Rochelle thought as she let go of him and they both made their way to the other room where Ellis was eagerly waiting to see Nick.

"Nick, yer alright! We were so worried about you huh, Coach?" Ellis said looking from Nick then to Coach.

Coach rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah we just couldn't wait for you to get up." Coach said sarcastically.

Nick didn't know what to say. He wanted to make Ellis angry with him, but one look at the kid and Nick was starting to wonder if he even had it in him to try to piss him off that much. He wanted to say that it was good to see that he was alright too, but instead he forced himself to say something else.

"Stop looking so damn fucking happy you stupid hick. Let's just get going before you start getting all emotional again." Nick said refusing to look at him and made his way to the guns wincing slightly from the pain in his leg.

Ellis looked hurt wondering why Nick was mad at him all of a sudden. They all picked up a gun, grabbed a health pack, and made their way to the door.

"Nick, what did I do to piss you off again?" Ellis asked.

"Just get the hell away from me!" Nick told him opening the door and quickly making his way outside.

'It's going to be a bitch running.' Nick thought trying hard not to show any signs of pain.

"Nick, the boy's been worryin about you this whole time and again yer treatin him like dirt! I don't get it, but Ellis has been tryin to get you to forgive him! What the hells yer problem?" Coach asked glaring at him as he shot at the nearest zombies as soon as he got outside.

"What my problem is, is that we don't have time for this! Virgil's waiting for us to signal him and I for one would like to get out of this fucking place!" Nick yelled shooting at the zombies that were getting in his way as he saw the burger tank.

"Nick, please just tell me what I did wrong!" Ellis cried out quickly following right after him.

'Nothing. You did nothing, overalls.' Nick thought.

"What do you think you did wrong? You left me to die! Plus the way you keep idolizing Coach is getting pretty annoying!" Nick told him as he pushed past more zombies and started coming up to the abandoned restaurant.

Coach and Rochelle started shooting at the zombies that Ellis was having trouble with trying to keep up with Nick and finally he made his way towards the ladder and started climbing up right after Nick turned on the burger tank sign. Rochelle looked at them worried.

"Sumethin the matter, baby girl?" Coach asked once they both made it to the ladder.

Rochelle shook her head.

"It's nothing, Coach." Rochelle replied.

'I know Nick didn't want me to say anything, but is it really a good idea to not tell Ellis or Coach about him?' Rochelle thought sadly as she climbed up the ladder and then looked at Ellis who was still trying to get Nick's attention 'Poor Ellis is going to end up heartbroken.'

"Ellis, don't bother. Nick's an asshole simple as that. Now why don't you come help me out here with all these zombies that are runnin around and tryin to get up here." Coach told him as he saw more zombies show up and run towards the building.

Ellis hesitated not wanting to leave Nick alone.

"Get the fuck away from me already! I don't want you getting me fucking killed!" Nick yelled turning to face him and forcing himself to glare at him.

Ellis winced and made his way towards Coach. Rochelle walked up towards Nick and looked at him. He had a pained look on his face.

"Rochelle, just treat me like you did before otherwise they're going to think something's up." Nick told her before he turned his attention on killing the zombies.

If it hadn't been for the rain, Nick knew that he probably would either pass out from the pain and from how hot he was feeling or would simply have a hard time shooting anything and that would have definitely told Ellis that he wasn't doing too good. He didn't have to do too much this time because surprisingly not that many special infected showed up since it was only a boomer, spitter, smoker, and a jockey, but they were easily taken down. They even already dealt with one of the tanks, killing it just before it could climb to the top of the building. Now they heard the second one showing up and it sounded a lot closer then the first one had.

"What's taking Virgil so long?" Rochelle cried out as she felt the building shaking violently underneath her.

"He'll be here!" Coach yelled out.

"Tank!" Ellis yelled shooting at it as it started climbing the building.

"Shit!" Nick yelled.

All four of them shot at it just as it got on top and tried throwing a rock at them, but instead it hit the burger tank's sign's pole.

"Shoot it!" Coach yelled as it ran towards them forcing them to get off the building.

Rochelle looked behind them.

"Guys we can't back up any further!" Rochelle told them.

Nick gasped in pain as he almost bent down to clutch his leg making Ellis look at him worried.

"Nick?"

"Don't! I'm fine." Nick replied as he promptly stood up and looked behind him, "Anytime now you fucking asshole!"

The tank roared as it saw its chance to throw them all into the water and jumped from the building landing right in front of them. Seeing as it headed towards Nick, Ellis got in front of him and before the tank could swing its arm it stopped and fell backwards on its back finally killed.

"What the fuck, Ellis!" Nick looked at him horrified.

"Well, you said you were still angry with me because I left you to die so I figured you won't be so mad at me if I saved yer life." Ellis told him.

Nick groaned.

"I hear Virgil! C'mon Y'all!" Coach yelled as he made his way closer so once the boat showed up he could just get on right away.

"You're a fucking idiot, Ellis! You shouldn't have done that!" Nick sighed.

Ellis looked at him hurt and confused.

"Tank!" Rochelle cried out as soon as she saw it start to climb over the fence that was on the left hand side of the building.

A few zombies also started to enter the building and were rushing at them. The boat finally showed up and they all quickly gone on it before the tank could even try to make a move to get at them and Virgil quickly drove them away from there. Nick sighed as he sat down and closed his eyes; feeling slightly dizzy from the fever. He started wondering if maybe Rochelle was right and it was too late to try and push the kid away since it was plain obvious even from before that he was never able to make Ellis mad. He opened his eyes and looked at Ellis who was looking at him worriedly. Nick didn't want him to worry about him. He wanted Ellis to hate him so that he didn't have to be the one hurting once they got to New Orleans.

'Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Sure Ellis will be hurt, but he'll still have Coach and Rochelle. Why do I keep thinking that I mean more to him then either one of them? I don't so he's not going to be THAT hurt. Right?' Nick swallowed as he thought of all the times Ellis gave his pain pills or adrenalines to anyone and it was almost always him.

To make matters worse he could have sworn he saw that, when it came to who was badly hurt, Ellis looked like he was about to panic only when Nick was the one who looked like was about to die.

Author's note: I'm really sorry from how late this chapter is. I've been busy getting my last Gears of War 2 achievement, being level 100 (finally I got my wings lmao), and then I bought Lego Harry Potter and I can't seem to stop playing it. Because of this I can't really tell you guys now when I'll update since my attention has been recently on my new game. I'll try to update soon if I can stop playing the game long enough to write another chapter.


	7. The Parish

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

The next couple of days went by slowly, to Nick anyway. They were still stuck on the boat waiting for Virgil to drop them off at their next destination. Since they left from their last location, Nick hadn't said a word or even looked at Ellis who had been trying to get him to talk to him. It had been very hard since Ellis either tried forcing Nick to look at him or by telling one of his Keith stories hoping that Nick would be the one to tell him to stop. Nick gritted his teeth restraining himself from saying a word as Ellis once again started up another story.

"How are y'all doing back there?" Virgil suddenly asked making Ellis abruptly stop his story.

"We're doing fine." Nick sighed keeping his eyes glued to the floor as he occasionally glanced at his injured leg.

"You got anymore food up there, Virgil? I'm starving." Coach asked as he heard his stomach growling.

They were all sitting down next to each other with Ellis and Rochelle in the middle. Ellis tried to look past Rochelle to look at Nick.

"Hey, Nick."

Rochelle shook her head and looked at Ellis.

"Sweetie, I don't think Nick's in the mood to talk right now." Rochelle told him.

They could hear Virgil respond saying that he didn't have a lot left and was saving the rest of it for himself later.

"Ro, Nick hasn't talked to me since three days ago and he's still not looking at me. Did I really do sumethin to get him that mad? I mean I apologized before about leavin him and it seemed like he forgave me." Ellis said looking at her worried.

"You want to know why you stupid hick? It's because I didn't want to have to deal with fucking Coach and Rochelle giving me a hard time while we were still trying to get the gas to the boat! How would you feel if we left your sorry ass to die?" Nick yelled trying to sound and look angry as he looked up and glared at him.

Ellis swallowed as he looked at him and then at the floor. Rochelle didn't know how to respond. Before she easily would have been able to scold Nick without feeling bad, but now she felt like she should just stay out of it. Nick raised an eyebrow at her, but then lowered it as soon as Coach glared at him.

"Get over it already, Nick! You ain't dead and yer here on the boat with us so there's no reason for you to still be mad especially at Ellis! He's done nuthin wrong!" Coach told him angrily.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Coach? No you know what look who I'm talking to. Ellis idolizes you so I guess it's no surprise that he's following your lead!" Nick felt himself really start to get angry as he turned his attention to Coach.

Coach sighed shaking his head.

"Boy, you are confusing as all hell. Here you are complainin about how we 'left' you to die, but the moment Ellis protects you from the tank just before Virgil shows up you go and yell at him."

Ellis looked up at Nick. He hadn't even thought of that until Coach brought it up. Nick started to turn red.

"I was trying to help kill the tank if you guys hadn't noticed. I could have accidentally shot Ellis AND he could have gotten us killed by doing that!" Nick replied.

"'Us', Nick? Since when did you care about what happens to the rest of us?" Coach asked.

Nick didn't respond.

"I see land y'all!" Virgil cried out.

Nick winced as he struggled to move closer to the side of the boat to take a look for himself.

'How is it the pain in my leg is getting worse?' Nick thought slightly surprised that he still didn't show any signs of changing yet.

"Nick, is yer leg alright? You seem to be havin trouble movin it. Was it because of that drop from the roof of the burger tank?" Ellis asked looking at him worriedly.

Nick sighed not wanting to look at him again since the look he saw on Ellis's face managed to slightly hurt him inside and he didn't want to feel more guilty then what he was already feeling.

"My leg is fine, Ellis so stop worrying about it. How about you worry about something else like getting through this place." Nick told him.

Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach got up and made their way over to Nick and saw that they were headed towards what looked like another city. Ellis kneeled down and started reaching for Nick's leg when he roughly pulled it away.

"I said it's fine. There's no need for you to look." Nick said.

Ellis looked at him sadly.

"Why wont you tell me what's wrong, Nick?"

"Nothing's wrong. My leg fell asleep that's all."

Ellis shook his head.

"No it hasn't. Nick I'm not so stupid as to not notice when yer hurt. You've been limping ever since we left the safe house to call Virgil and I've seen the look on your face whenever yer in pain." Ellis said looking very worried.

Rochelle looked at Nick worried wondering how he's going to deal with the fact that Ellis knows that something is wrong. Nick gritted his teeth. He was hoping that Ellis hadn't noticed or at least didn't think much of it, but man was he wrong.

"Nick, what happened after the tank knocked me out cold?" Ellis asked.

Nick winced as he kept on looking at the approaching city still able to see Ellis from the corner of his eye. Ellis sighed then turned to look at Rochelle and Coach. Rochelle hesitated struggling to tell him what happened without telling him that Nick had been bitten. Luckily Coach beat her to it.

"I sent Nick to take you to the safe house and then a hunter got on him just as he got you inside. When Ro and I got there it was tearin into him. There wasn't any sign of damage to his leg then." Coach frowned looking at Ellis and then down to Nick.

"Not from what we could tell anyway. Ellis, sweetie, I don't think that there's anything wrong with his leg." Rochelle told him.

Ellis looked at her seriously.

"Ro, you were the one healin him. So yer sure that there weren't any cuts or sumethin on his leg?"

Rochelle felt her heart beating fast in her chest as she reluctantly said that she was sure. Nick held his breath as he waited for Ellis to respond.

"Well, ok." Ellis sighed not believing what Nick and Rochelle had told him.

"Good news folks. This is yer last destination before headin off to New Orleans." Virgil told them.

Coach grinned.

"Finally we can all start thinking about actual food!" Coach said.

Rochelle laughed.

"Really, Coach that's all you think about. The first thing I want to do is take a nice hot shower and change out of these clothes!" Rochelle said.

Nick let out his breath not bothering to respond since he knew exactly what was most likely going to happen as soon as they arrive. He was positive that they were going to kill him as soon as they test him for signs of the infection.

"What are you gunna do, Nick?" Ellis asked.

Nick shrugged.

"Never really thought about it. I guess I'll just be wanting to get some sleep for once."

Rochelle glanced at him and then at Ellis. Ellis frowned.

"Don't you wanna grab sumethin to eat or clean up first? What about checkin to see if yer family and friends are alright?" Ellis asked.

"Plenty of time for that later." Nick replied.

'What family and friends?' Nick thought to himself.

"Nick, you ain't gunna go anywhere are you?"

Nick turned to face him. The moment he saw Ellis's hurt look he knew exactly how Ellis was going to react. He forced himself to smile slightly at him.

"I'm not going anywhere, Ellis."

Ellis smiled at him. Coach snorted.

"I still don't see why you even want him around." Coach said.

Rochelle sighed.

"Once we get to New Orleans we wont have to stay as one group. We can all do whatever we want." Rochelle pointed out.

"I'd prefer it if we all stayed together." Ellis said.

"Sorry, youngin. Ain't gunna happen with this asshole still here." Coach said glaring at Nick.

"My thoughts exactly. I'll stay with you, Ellis so long as Coach is nowhere to be seen." Nick replied glaring back at him.

Rochelle sighed shaking her head.

'Boys.' She thought.

Ellis looked from Nick to Coach feeling hurt that they're still refusing to get along. Suddenly they felt the boat come to a stop and they saw that they finally made it to the place that will take them to New Orleans. They got out and said goodbye to Virgil and watched as he left. Rochelle leaned towards Nick and whispered in his ear.

"So much for trying to get Ellis to hate you." Rochelle said.

"He's going to hate me. By the time we leave from here he'll hate me." Nick whispered back, "There isn't a single person who I haven't managed to hate me and the kid is no exception."

"There's just one problem. I don't think you have it in you to do that to him or yourself. I've seen the way you look at him, Nick. It's going to kill you when he starts treating you like how Coach has been treating you." Rochelle told him.

"One I'm already dead and two I have no idea what you're talking about." Nick said.

Rochelle looked at him sadly as he went to pick up a gun and a health kit from the table that was next to them. She had a feeling that he was in denial and didn't want to face just how much it hurts that he's having to push Ellis away. Ellis had seen them whispering to each other and he was now convinced that something was seriously wrong.

Author's note: Sorry it's not really an important chapter, but I felt like it needed to be in here. Finally I was able to get off LEGO Harry Potter and write another chapter which I wasn't sure if I was going to write it now or wait until later. The game is so addicting and PROBLEM its getting me back into HarryxRon again lol uh yeah. So until I get bored of it updates for my story will come kinda slow. Sorry about that.


	8. The Parish First Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Nick stood ready to go as he watched the others grab a gun and a health kit. This time Rochelle was the one who took the melee weapon which happened to be a pan. She held it out in front of her ready to bash the zombies' skulls heads in. They quickly made their way until they started seeing a small group of zombies that were on either side of them. Coach and Rochelle took care of the ones on the right while Nick and Ellis dealt with the ones on the left.

"That was easy enough." Rochelle said as she walked towards a car.

"Well it's only going to get better from here." Nick said sarcastically as he saw a few zombies rush at them from their left.

Rochelle quickly bashed their heads in while Nick shot at a few behind them. Body parts flew everywhere and they started making their way past all the vehicles that were blocking the road.

"Spitter!" Ellis yelled as he spotted it hiding behind one of the vehicles.

It came out of hiding as soon as Nick came by and spat in his direction. He made a face as he started feeling the pain from the goo and quickly ran away from it forcing himself to deal with the pain he was still feeling in his right leg. Having caught up, Ellis quickly killed it and waited for the goo to vanish before making his way towards Nick. Nick sighed having to lower his gun since he was just about to shoot it.

"I could have taken care of it, Ellis." Nick told him.

"Well, I didn't want it downing ya, Nick." Ellis replied looking at him.

Nick looked at him annoyed.

"It'll take a lot more then a fucking spitter to take me down!"

"With yer leg as bad as it is, man a freakin jockey will take you down." Ellis said looking at him seriously.

"My leg is fine! How many goddamn times do I have to tell you?" Nick gritted his teeth.

"Nick, I know you and Ro are hidin sumethin from me and it's about yer leg. If it's nuthin to worry about why are you tryin so hard to not let me find out? How bad is it?" Ellis asked looking at him worried.

"We aren't hiding anything, Ellis!" Nick replied angrily.

"Y'all look out for that charger!" Coach yelled out.

Both Nick and Ellis ignored him not even bothering to notice that Rochelle and Coach had just killed a jockey that had been behind them and then they turned their attention on the charger which was trying to aim for Nick and Ellis, but was killed before it could make contact.

"Then why were you and Ro whisperin to each other? If it wasn't such a big deal you guys could have told Coach and me instead of keepin it a secret!" Ellis said starting to get a little annoyed himself.

"We weren't talking about my leg! God Ellis why do you care if I'm injured or not?" Nick asked.

"You can't fool me, Nick! I can see right through you and Rochelle! Every time she looks at you worried is a big give away! Also the way yer trying to hide how much pain yer in is another one! I care, Nick cause yer mah…friend and friends look out for each other!" Ellis slightly turned red and looked away breaking eye contact.

Nick raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ellis, during this whole time you've only healed me once and for the most part it almost seemed like you were trying to avoid me before. I don't think that qualifies as us being 'friends'." Nick replied.

"Hunter!" Coach yelled again.

Ellis turned redder not knowing what to say.

"Boys can you please discuss this later! We're kinda being attacked here!" Rochelle told them.

"Let's move! I don't want to continue standing here killing the zombies before they kill us!" Coach replied.

"Didn't mean to hold ya up." Ellis replied as he quickly moved past Nick.

Nick frowned watching as he started killing zombies that were ahead of him. As soon as Coach past him and Rochelle was next to him, Nick gave her a look. She sighed.

"How was I supposed to know that Ellis was paying attention? I was a little too busy worrying about you." Rochelle told him.

"Good job with that. You did it so well Ellis now knows that we're hiding it from him." Nick replied.

They slowly followed behind Ellis and Coach and quickly killed a smoker that was hiding on top one of the buildings.

"It's not all my fault! You're also making it obvious that you're in pain!" Rochelle told him.

"Well excuse me! I wasn't exactly planning on having a fucking hunter bite me!" Nick said angrily.

As soon as Ellis and Coach turned right into a small alley, Rochelle quickly put her hand on Nick's forehead.

"Well, your fever is almost gone. How are you feeling besides the constant pain in your leg?" Rochelle asked as she removed her hand and quickly replaced her melee weapon with her shot gun.

"I feel fine. I'm still kinda surprised I haven't…..y'know." Nick replied.

Rochelle sighed nodding her head.

"Yeah I know." Rochelle said.

They heard Coach and Ellis yelling and they quickly ran to catch up with them. Rochelle ran slightly ahead of Nick and found herself entering the back of what used to be a restaurant and in front of her she saw a jockey on top of Coach.

"Get off him!" Rochelle yelled out as she carefully aimed at it and killed it.

Coach sighed.

"Thanks, Ro."

"Where's Ellis?" Nick asked as soon as he caught up.

"He's just up ahead. Smoker's got him." Coach told him.

"Fuck!"

Nick put pressure on his right leg and took off towards the sound of Ellis's screaming. As he got closer he saw the safe room door. Once he got outside of the building and stopped right in front of the car with an alarm he looked to his left and saw Ellis dangling from the smoker's tongue. He also saw that a group of zombies had been attacking him. Nick made his way over to them, shot at the smoker's tongue before Ellis lost consciousness, and killed the zombies. Coach and Rochelle had been right behind him and were keeping watch to make sure that no other infected showed up.

"You alright?" Nick asked as he helped Ellis up.

Ellis coughed as he slowly nodded.

"Yeah I'm fine." Ellis replied.

"The safe house is right there you'll make it." Nick told him.

Coach and Rochelle made their way to the safe house first to make sure nothing was in there waiting for them.

"It's all clear in here!" Coach yelled out.

Ellis looked at Nick as he helped him inside. Rochelle went to close the door while Nick brought Ellis over to where the ammo and health packs were at. He sat him down and took the health pack off his back.

"Nick, what are doing?" Ellis asked.

"Healing you what's it look like I'm doing?" Nick replied.

Ellis swallowed.

"You know you don't have to if you don't want to, I'm fine." Ellis told him.

"Ellis you're not fine. You were almost strangled to death and I bet those zombies did a number on you. Lift your shirt." Nick said

Ellis blushed.

"Nick, you shouldn't be healin me when yer leg…"

"Ellis."

"Why won't you tell me what's wrong and don't say it's nuthin or yer leg fell asleep again because I ain't stupid!" Ellis said.

"I know you're not." Nick said as he looked at him.

"Then why? Is it cause you don't trust me?" Ellis asked.

"I trust you fine, Ellis."

"It doesn't seem like you do." Ellis said looking at him sadly.

Nick sighed.

"What does Ro have that I don't? Is it because she's a girl and is easier to talk to?"

Nick looked at him in surprise, but then he started smirking.

"Don't tell me you're jealous, overalls."

"I ain't…it's just….why can't you tell me things like you can with Ro?" Ellis asked starting to feel nervous as he felt his face heat up.

"I didn't think you'd want me to tell you anything."

"I'm serious."

Nick didn't know how to respond to him. Ellis looked away feeling completely hurt. Nick hesitated before finally deciding to tell him.

"Ok you were right. My leg is a little bit jacked up. The hunter Coach had mentioned earlier clawed at my leg, but it's nothing life threatening. It just hurts a little bit whenever I put pressure on my leg." Nick said.

Ellis looked at him feeling slightly relieved.

"You want me to take a look at it?" Ellis asked.

Nick shook his head.

"I'll be fine. Now will you please just let me heal you already?"

Ellis smiled and nodded. As soon as Nick finished with him Ellis got up and went to get ammo and some pain pills. Rochelle walked over to Nick and kneeled next to him.

"You're not going to tell him the truth, Nick?" Rochelle whispered.

"No. " Nick replied

Rochelle paused for a second.

"What happened to all of that fire inside you? Did it burn out?"

Nick blushed and glared at her as she started giggling.

"It'll happen. I told you already, Rochelle. I don't plan on having Ellis get close to me."

"Then what was this just now?" Rochelle asked.

Nick looked away feeling his face start to heat up. Rochelle started laughing making Coach and Ellis look at her.

"What's so funny, baby girl?" Coach asked.

"Nothing, nothing." Rochelle said while trying to stifle her laughter.

'I swear I'm going to kill her!' Nick thought angrily his whole face now turning red.

'Once again Ellis wins!' Rochelle thought.

Author's note: Just to let you guys know I'm NOT discontinuing this story or putting it up for adoption. I said I was going to update kinda slow not completely stop writing altogether. One is that if someone else continued my story it would more then likely go a different direction and I would not be happy with that. Two someone would probably try changing it (not liking that idea either) and discontinuing it when I have a lot of readers that would make me a fucking bitch especially since you guys are all into this story and are patient with me thank you by the way. I usually only discontinue a story when I feel like its not going anywhere or when I don't have a lot of readers or reviews. Like I said before I know where I want to take this story the only problem is how to get there. I also wont leave this story unfinished just to start another one from a different category. That's not me. Once I make a story I finish it (if its good) then I move on to another one. I know I'm lazy so you can blame me for taking so long with these chapters because of that. I could get off my Xbox anytime, but I usually end up staying on until very late at night because I'm hooked on to the game. I have to play Left 4 Dead 2 again soon because I'm kinda starting to forget what The Parish looks like lol my bad. I'm kinda horrible when it comes to description of the setting.


	9. The Parish Second Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

After having looked out the safe room door and saw quite a few zombies, Coach went to pick up a pipe bomb. He opened the door and once he stepped outside he tossed it and watched as the entire group of infected ran towards it.

"Y'all can come out now!" Coach yelled out as he saw the pipe bomb explode and watched as body parts flew everywhere.

Rochelle pocketed the last bottle of pain pills and pipe bomb and followed right after Nick and Ellis.

"Man, these zombies are just plain stupid!" Ellis said grinning.

Nick sighed.

"Which ones are you talking about, Ellis? Because from where I'm standing they all sure know how to take us down." Nick replied.

"Well whenever one of us throws a pipe bomb or a molotov they either run after it or run threw it. Pretty much they're just killin themselves." Ellis said looking at Nick.

"That's only when we have one or the other. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't rely on just those alone especially when we have the 'special' infected to worry about." Nick told him.

"I know that. I'm just sayin that it's helpin us out a lot."

Nick shrugged.

"It's better then nothing I guess." Nick said.

Nick, Ellis, and Rochelle followed behind Coach as he led them up the stairs and then turned to his left.

"Nice park they got here." Coach said stopping as he killed a few more zombies, "Careful y'all I think I hear a few of them 'special' infected somewhere around here."

They continued making their way through the park on the left hand side where they saw a gazebo just ahead of them. Suddenly they felt the ground start to shake alerting everyone to the presence of a tank. The tank roared as it came into view and everyone started shooting at it. While it had them distracted the charger showed up and charged towards Coach almost immediately ramming him until he hit the wall.

"Chargers got me! Help!" Coach yelled out as the charger started smashing him into the ground.

"Coach!" Ellis yelled trying to get to Coach, but was forced to back up as the tank was on his ass.

"Shit! Ro, go help Coach! Ellis and I will take care of the tank!" Nick told her.

Rochelle nodded, but just before she could even make a move to get to him a hunter pounced on her. Nick killed it before it could do any damage and then turned his attention back on the tank. He ran towards it as he saw it start to back Ellis into a corner. Nick started to feel dizzy as he slowed down with the pain in his right leg growing more intense.

"What the fuck?" Nick said as he came to a stop and instead started shooting at it from a distance.

The thing just wasn't going down and Ellis was already up against a wall as the tank started hitting him. Nick gritted his teeth and tried running towards it again. Ellis started screaming and Nick was getting dizzier as he kept running almost to the point of passing out. Luckily he got there and was able to get the tank to stop attacking Ellis and instead go after him. Before it could hit him it fell to the floor dead. Nick gasped for breath as he looked behind him and saw that Coach and Rochelle had caught up with them. Paying no attention to Nick, Coach walked over to Ellis and helped him up.

"You alright there, youngin?" Coach asked.

Ellis hadn't heard what Coach said as he looked at Nick wide eyed as he saw him leaning over and was trying to catch his breath.

"Nick?" Rochelle asked looking at him worriedly.

"I'm fine…" Nick said leaning over with both of his hands on his knees.

It took almost a minute before Nick stood back up and sighed.

"I'm good let's go."

Rochelle waited until Coach and Ellis (reluctantly) past her and Nick before feeling his forehead again. She winced as she pulled back.

"Nick, you have a fever again how…"

"I don't think I can run, Rochelle…" Nick reluctantly admitted.

Rochelle thought about it for a few seconds and looked at him sadly.

"This is bad, Nick. I thought for sure that having a few days rest without walking would have at least helped you out a little, but I guess not." Rochelle said, "What's wrong?"

Nick told her that he was starting to feel lightheaded. Rochelle bit her lip as she looked at him. She started to suggest that he shouldn't run, but Nick shook his head.

"I can't Rochelle. You know I can't because that would put not only me, but all of us in danger." Nick told her.

Rochelle sighed.

"Yeah I know. Nick, maybe you should tell Ellis about this because it looks like it's only going to get worse from here." Rochelle said.

"I'm not telling him about the bite and you shouldn't either. If he asks again just tell him I got sick or something because of the cut. We should start walking because we're starting to fall behind." Nick said.

"Nick…"

"I'm serious, Rochelle. This is the last time I'm telling you this so don't bring it up again."

They started walking again as they made their way back to the gazebo and then past it and went towards where they saw the exit of the park. They turned left and right in front of an alley stood Coach and Ellis. Ellis looked relieved as soon as he saw them show up.

"I was just about to see if y'all were in trouble or sumethin, but yer ok." Ellis said.

"We're fine, Ellis. You guys didn't have any trouble getting here did you?" Rochelle asked.

"Just a smoker, a boomer, and a couple of regular infected, but they were easily taken care of." Coach replied.

Nick sighed as he heard the crying of a witch.

"Please don't fucking tell me she's in our way."

"Unfortunately, she's right here in this alley, but I've got it handled." Coach said as he walked towards her.

The witch let out a scream before it died.

"As always, Coach. You're the best one for killing witches." Rochelle said as she followed right behind him.

"It really ain't that hard to get a head shot." Coach told her.

"I Would really like to see him get downed by a witch for once." Nick mumbled to himself.

"Nick, you alright? You don't look so good…"

Nick turned just as Ellis lifted his hand to feel Nick's forehead.

"Holy shit, man yer burnin up!" Ellis looked at him worried.

Nick sighed.

"It's nothing, overalls. It's just really hot out here that's all."

Ellis put his other hand on his own forehead and frowned.

"Nah, Nick. If that were true I would be just as hot as you are. Its yer leg isn't it? Whatever that hunter did it's affectin you bad, man. You looked like you were about to collapse and you weren't even runnin that much." Ellis said worriedly.

"I'm just dehydrated, Ellis. I haven't had anything since yesterday." Nick replied.

"None of us had anything since yesterday, Nick and yer the only one lookin like he's about to pass out."

Once again they were completely ignoring the zombies as Rochelle and Coach dealt with them.

"Ellis, for once can you not focus on me and instead focus on killing all these zombies?" Nick said as he randomly shot at a few different places.

Nick somehow managed to kill a spitter who had been hiding almost behind a table that had ammo and a guitar on it.

"Well I would like to Nick, but seein as sumethin is wrong with you I can't!" Ellis told him as he also started randomly shooting at zombies since there was another big group surrounding them.

Body parts and insides from zombies flew everywhere and Nick and Ellis barely heard Coach yell out 'jockey'. Nick started to get agitated.

"I told you I'm…"

"I don't believe you, Nick! I thought we were past this already! Yer leg is killin you and it's obvious to me that the hunter had to of done sumethin more to it then just scratch it!"

"You don't believe me? You're the one who said you trusted me!" Nick said angrily

"When it comes to you savin me yeah I trust you, but when it comes to you bein the one who needs help no I don't trust you cause yer always lying!" Ellis told him.

"I don't need help! Even if I wanted it you couldn't help me anyway!"

"What the hell does that mean?"

Nick went silent.

"Nick?" Ellis asked starting to feel nervous about what Nick just said.

"Y'all we need to turn off that alarm!" Coach yelled out to them.

Nick and Ellis hadn't realized until then that the door Coach had opened had set off an alarm that was alerting a horde of zombies to them. Nick sighed as he saw a couple of adrenalines that were right next to him on a table. He picked up one and waited for Rochelle and Ellis to follow right behind Coach before leaving himself. Rochelle glanced at him before following Coach.

"I want you in front."

Nick turned to glare at him.

"Ellis…" Nick growled.

"Yer not gunna die on me so get going!" Ellis told him.

Nick started running to catch up with Coach and Rochelle. By the time he made to them when they were starting to turn the first corner, he started feeling lightheaded again.

'Fuck not now!' Nick thought.

Thankfully Nick didn't have to deal with that many zombies since they were mostly coming from either in front or behind him which was already covered by Coach, Rochelle, and Ellis. They continued running until they turned a couple of more corners all the way until they saw the ladder and Coach started climbing up. Rochelle stayed on the ground as she kept the zombies from going after him. Nick found himself unable to run anymore as he stopped to catch his breath.

'Just deal with it. The pain in your leg, the fact that you're probably going to pass out any minute just deal with it.' Nick thought to himself as he felt himself get hotter.

"Nick?" Ellis asked right away catching up with him.

Ellis heard a charger right behind him and just as it started to charge at them he pulled Nick out of the way, but it still managed to scrape Nick's leg. Nick gasped in pain and would have fallen to the floor if Ellis hadn't been holding on to him.

"NICK!" Ellis yelled out.

Nick closed his eyes and was gritting his teeth tightly because of the pain. Ellis looked down at his leg and saw that it was starting to bleed pretty badly.

"Yer ok, Nick. I got you just hang on."

Ellis slowly had him sit on the ground and then concentrated on killing the zombies that were either going at them or at Rochelle (mostly Rochelle). The alarm had stopped and Ellis assumed that Coach got it. The rest of the zombies were easily taken care of and Rochelle hurriedly made her way to Nick.

"Don't worry about it, Ro. I got him." Ellis said as he helped Nick to his feet.

Coach started climbing down and waited for them in front of the door that had just opened. Nick gasped in pain as he was helped to where Coach was at. Rochelle tried to take Nick from Ellis, but he shook his head and said that he wanted to get him to the safe house.

"We're almost there, man and then we can take a look at yer leg." Ellis told him.

Nick snorted.

"You're wasting your time, overalls."

"Hey, I don't care if I have to argue with you the entire time, but I will make sure that you will be ok." Ellis replied.

Nick simply looked at him not exactly talking about the fact that they've been arguing a lot recently. He felt himself start to doze off because of the pain, dizziness, and how hot he was feeling. He barely heard as Rochelle tossed out her pipe bomb, and felt as Ellis started shaking him before losing consciousness.

Author's note: Just so we're clear this story isn't one of those infected stories. Nick ISN'T going to turn so I'm sorry if that's what you were hoping was going to happen. I just hate it when Nick has to kill Ellis or vice a versa I just can't read those stories. Sorry, but I still haven't been able to get off LEGO Harry Potter so I haven't been able to play Left 4 Dead 2 again. Basically I'm going off memory so if you want to see the actual settings just play The Parish if you have the game and sorry to the person or people who don't have it (hopefully you'll get it soon). Also if you're wondering why I haven't gotten Nick to make Ellis hate him yet is because I'm waiting for the right moment to present itself. I can't say when it'll happen, but it'll hopefully happen before they get rescued. Also i'm sorry about how many times Nick has lost consciousness. I really didn't mean for it to happen so often, but it's what came in my head everytime i wrote that specific chapter.


	10. The Parish Third Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Nick once again woke up to the feeling of pain throbbing through his leg. He slowly started sitting up and looked around noticing that they had made it to the safe house.

"Boy, how about next time you alert us to when yer about to pass out." Coach said.

Nick growled.

"Well excuse me for being in too much pain to say anything!" Nick replied glaring at him.

Coach snorted.

"I can't believe he's actually admittin it for once that he's hurtin."

"Coach, don't start." Rochelle told him and then turned to face Nick and smiled at him, "I'm glad to see that you're awake. You alright?"

"I've had worse." Nick told her.

"Since when, Nick? You've never passed out before." Ellis said looking at him concern written all over his face, "Man you weren't kidding. Yer leg was jacked up. I don't see how you were able to walk on it, but then again it got jacked even more because of that charger so yer gunna have a harder time walkin on it now."

Nick glanced at Rochelle feeling nervous that Ellis probably saw the bite marks on his leg.

"So was it you, Ellis who took care of my leg while I was out?" Nick swallowed as he finally noticed that his leg had been wrapped.

Ellis nodded.

"There was so much blood though that I had Rochelle help me with stitchin yer wounds back up. I guess they reopened either because of you runnin or because of that charger barely scrapin you. Either way we decided it was best that we wrapped yer leg up to prevent them from openin again." Ellis told him.

Nick frowned as he started to think that Ellis probably didn't see the bite marks at all.

'Well I guess I should thank that charger for at least doing something helpful.' Nick thought.

"You scared the hell out of me, man. I thought sumethin was really wrong with you since you wouldn't respond to me when I tried to wake you up." Ellis said.

Nick turned slightly red and looked away.

"How long was I out?" Nick asked.

"How the hell should we know? We ain't got the time." Coach replied

"It felt like maybe half an hour. Just a guess." Rochelle said, "Ellis refused to calm down the entire time once we got you in here."

"Ro!" Ellis told her as he started turning red.

"What? I think it's cute." Rochelle giggled.

"Well now that he's awake we should get goin. Once again we've wasted enough time stayin here." Coach said as he headed for the door and picked up a gun that was on the table next to it.

"Coach, maybe we should wait…" Ellis started to say.

"There's no need for that. I'm good to go because like I said before I'd rather not stay here any longer then I have to." Nick said as he stood up and slowly started to put pressure on his leg.

"But, Nick…"

"I'll be fine, overalls. Besides you and Rochelle are looking out for me." Nick told him.

Ellis bit his lip.

"Well ok."

Nick, Ellis, and Rochelle quickly went to grab a gun (and a health pack if they didn't have one already) and followed right behind Coach who had already opened the door and walked out. After killing a few zombies that had gotten in their way they started making their way towards an empty store and Coach quickly went in hoping to look for a few more supplies, but there was nothing. They then started heading upstairs just above the store and saw more zombies inside what looked like a small apartment. Once again they weren't much of a threat and Nick and Ellis easily took care of them. They went inside and went to check the two rooms that were in the back.

"Y'all I found a defib unit! Should I grab it?" Ellis asked as he just stared at it.

"I'll get it, youngin. You should keep yer health kit." Coach told him as he saw it on the bed and swapped it with his health kit.

"What makes you think we even need that thing, Coach?" Nick asked.

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared for the worst, Nick. We're not exactly invincible. We've been lucky so far. Do you remember what those other survivors said to us before?" Coach asked looking at him.

"You mean the ones we met just before we got to Whispering Oaks? Yeah I remember." Nick sighed.

"They said that they lost somebody and they looked like they've been out here for quite some time." Coach said.

"So what's your point?" Nick asked.

"My point is if one of us 'dies' there's at least a chance that we can bring them back to life." Coach said shaking his head.

"So if I died, then you would use that thing on me?"

"Oh hell no. I'm only doing it if it's Ro or Ellis." Coach glared at him.

Nick snorted.

"Saw that one coming."

"Nick, you ain't gunna die and Coach yer supposed to care about everyone here not just Ro and me." Ellis told them.

Coach shook his head and headed back out of the room. Nick and Ellis was about to follow right behind him when they noticed that Rochelle wasn't moving.

"What's wrong, Rochelle?" Nick asked.

Rochelle shook her head.

"Nothing. It's just do you think they're ok? I know that they said that they would be fine on their own, but I'm just a little worried about them." Rochelle said biting her lip.

Nick shook his head and looked at her.

"Are you talking about all three of them or that stupid greasy vest wearing monkey?" Nick asked.

Rochelle glared at him.

"His name is Francis, Nick and well…I guess mostly him." Rochelle blushed.

Ellis grinned.

"Aw even when he's not here you still got a thing for him."

"I do not!" Rochelle said as she playfully started slapping him.

Ellis started laughing as he started teasing her about it making her chase him out of the room. Nick sighed and followed right behind them.

"What about you and Zoey, Ellis? Do you still like her?" Rochelle asked giggling at the look on his face.

Ellis had a huge smile on his face and started blushing.

"Zoey…she's the prettiest girl I have ever seen…she's an angel sent from up above."

"Um, Ellis she's not here." Rochelle told him.

"Well neither is that biker dude and yer also actin like he's still around!" Ellis replied.

"Not as much as you are with Zoey!" Rochelle said.

Nick growled as he rushed past them to catch up with Coach not even feeling the pain in his leg anymore.

"What's the matter with him?" Ellis asked frowning slightly.

"I don't think we should mention her anymore, sweetie. He doesn't like it when you're talking about her." Rochelle told him.

"Why?"

"He just doesn't like her."

"How can anyone not like her? She's an…."

"Yes I know, but how would you feel if Nick was the one who liked her and talked about her the same way you do?" Rochelle asked.

Ellis didn't say anything as they started running to catch up with Nick and Coach. They were just about to head upstairs to head through another house when they heard a roar and felt the ground start to shake underneath them.

"I've had just about enough of them!" Coach yelled out as he and Nick quickly backed away forcing Rochelle and Ellis to also back up and get out of the way.

As soon as the tank appeared in the doorway everyone started shooting at it which only made it angrier and it attempted to throw a rock directly towards Coach. Coach managed to dodge it as he kept on shooting it. It started running towards him, but was distracted as soon as Nick, Ellis, and Rochelle got closer to it (shooting at it) and started running backwards again the moment it turned and tried to hit one of them. It got confused as to who it should target and before it could make up its mind it was quickly killed.

"Man, I can't wait to be away from these fucking tanks." Nick said glaring down at it before heading back upstairs towards the house.

"You and me both." Coach said.

They continued making their way through the house and then jumped down to the ground as soon as they saw a huge hole in the wall in the last room. There was another small group of zombies including a charger, spitter, and hunter which had been waiting for them. The charger was the first to make its move as the moment all four of them were on the ground, it ran at them sending them all hitting the ground and it immediately started slamming Rochelle to the ground. While the guys started standing up, the spitter spat its acid at them forcing them to quickly move away from it.

"Hang on baby girl!" Coach yelled out as he heard her scream for help.

Nick killed the spitter as it ran at them and then moved away from it since it spilled even more acid. He then turned and saw that the hunter had just jumped on Ellis and before Ellis could even yell for help, Nick shoved it off of him and killed it.

"How do you do that?" Ellis asked as he stood up.

"All you have to do is aim and shoot. How the fuck do you not know how to do that?" Nick asked.

Ellis blushed.

"No I meant how did you kill it so fast when it barely got on me. I hadn't even yelled for help yet." Ellis said.

"I pay attention, Ellis. No matter what's happening unlike you who loses concentration when there's a fucking pretty girl around." Nick rolled his eyes.

Ellis looked at him.

"Nick, how come you don't like Zoey?"

"Because she's fucking annoying."

"But you don't even know her."

"I know her well enough to know that she's not good enough for you." Nick replied as he started to make his way towards Coach and Rochelle who was looking at them curiously.

"How do you know what's good for me?" Ellis asked as he ran to keep up.

Nick practically ran past Coach and Rochelle as Ellis kept bugging him about it.

"He's not going to be able to get away from him fast enough." Rochelle giggled, "Oh thanks, Coach for saving me from the charger."

"Don't worry about it baby girl. Let's just try to keep up with them before we get separated." Coach said.

They ended up going through two more houses, as they dealt with a boomer, a couple of normal infected, and a witch before they winded up having to go through the sewers.

"Oh god this stinks inside my head! I can't believe we have to go through this fucking shit!" Nick complained as he walked through the dirty water, "It's messing up my suit."

"Nick, your suit has already been messed up multiple times before." Rochelle told him before she held her breath.

"It looks like a chocolate candy bar!" Ellis yelled out.

Nick turned and made a face at him. Rochelle roared with laughter and Coach shook his head not even wanting to think about it that way.

"Boy yer gunna make me not like chocolate anymore." Coach told him.

"Well, it does!" Ellis said looking at the dirty water.

"Ellis, shut up!" Nick told him.

Nick sighed with relief as soon as he saw a ladder. He quickly shot at a few zombies that were headed towards him and the others before climbing it. His look of relief was quickly replaced by one of horror as soon as he saw how many cars there were in front of him.

"Fuck…guys watch where you're aiming when you come up here." Nick told them.

"What are you….oh that's why." Rochelle said as she climbed up and stood next to him.

Alarm cars where everywhere and one wrong step, gun shot, or even a simple touch could set any one of them off.

"Holy shit I've never seen so many alarm cars in one place!" Ellis said the moment he got up.

"Well it looks like its best if none of us uses our guns here. All we have to do is shove the zombies away." Coach said looking around for a way to get past all of the cars without triggering any one of their alarms.

Rochelle switched her weapon for the pan that was on her back.

"Thank god the tank didn't show up here." Nick said as he started walking forward shoving zombies away from himself as soon as they spotted them.

It didn't take long for them to realize that not all of the cars had alarms. They got on top of the ones that they were sure weren't going to alert a horde of zombies.

"Careful. CAREFUL!" Nick said watching as Ellis pushed a couple of zombies away from himself and shot at them almost hitting one of the alarm cars.

"Ellis, sweetie you need to shove them not shoot at them." Rochelle told him hitting a few zombies with her pan.

"But they'll just keep comin at us." Ellis said.

"There's not that many, youngin. We can get by without shootin see?" Coach said as he hit a zombie a few times before it died.

Ellis nodded and shoved his way through until they all made it to yet another ladder.

"Thank you for not setting off any of those car alarms!" Nick said as he watched Ellis climb the ladder.

Once they all climbed up, they saw an ambulance right next to them and went to check for some supplies.

"Y'all I see two bottles of pain pills. Anyone need some?" Ellis asked as he pulled out his bottle and took some of the pain pills then handed it to Nick.

"I don't need any." Nick told him as Coach grabbed one of them.

"Yer leg is probably still hurtin you, man. Just take it." Ellis told him.

"I still have my adrenaline." Nick said pulling it out to show him.

"They don't work as good as pills do, Nick and I don't really need mine." Ellis said trying to give them to him.

Nick snorted.

"Since when did pills work better then adrenaline? Adrenaline works too and besides there's another bottle of pills here so you don't have to give me yours, Ellis."

Ellis frowned as he grabbed the other bottle and then gave him his. Nick raised an eyebrow at him as he took his adrenaline and pocketed the pain pills.

"You're weird, overalls."

Ellis grinned and headed towards the other end of the bridge and before they all knew it, it had exploded so now they were forced to drop down instead of continuing on the bridge.

"Why the fuck are they bombing us?" Nick yelled angrily.

"They probably stopped lookin for survivors already. Let's get a move on." Coach replied.

"Aw man I hate cemeteries! There's ghosts!" Ellis complained as soon as he saw that they were going to have to go by it.

"You believe in ghosts, Ellis?" Nick asked

"Hell yeah I do. One time my buddy Keith and I went to go visit this old place that was supposedly supposed to be haunted. I thought it was a joke so when he asked me to go with him I said yes and the moment we stepped inside this mansion…."

'Not that fucking Keith again.' Nick thought angrily.

"Ellis, this isn't the best time for your story." Nick gritted his teeth.

"Um ok." Ellis said looking at him.

As soon as they dropped on to where the debris of where the bridge had been bombed, they found themselves surrounded by another group of zombies. They immediately started shooting.

"Jockey!" Nick yelled out.

Before Nick could even try to kill it, it jumped on him and started steering him away.

"Jockeys got me!" Nick yelled out.

Rochelle and Ellis pushed their way through the zombies to get to Nick. Coach was forced to follow shooting the zombies that were getting in their way and then quickly turning to get the ones attacking him from behind. They managed to get close enough to kill it, but fear of accidentally shooting Nick instead and with the zombies still attacking them they decided to hit the thing off of him. Nick nearly fell as soon as it was off of him and before it could try jumping him again he hit it until it died. Once they were able to take care of the zombies that had them surrounded, Nick took out his pain pills and took some.

"I'm sure as hell not going to miss this once we get out of here." Nick sighed.

"Really, Nick because it was actually startin to get fun!" Coach said sarcastically.

Nick rolled his eyes as they continued on ahead. The cemetery was practically a maze since they sometimes had to turn back because they ended up hitting a dead end. There wasn't that many regular zombies, but it didn't stop the special ones from attacking them. A smoker had gotten a hold of Rochelle at the same time a hunter had pounced on top of Coach, but both had been easily taken care of. Not until they got closer to the safe house did they have a little bit of trouble. There was a lot of regular infected and they could hear a charger, boomer and witch nearby.

"Be careful with the witch! I don't see her!" Rochelle yelled out as she switched her pan back for her weapon and started shooting.

Having not seen it because of the large group of zombies, Rochelle accidentally shot the boomer and vomit went all over her and Ellis.

"This stuff sucks, man!" Ellis yelled as he started shoving the zombies away since he couldn't see.

"ELLIS!" Nick yelled out.

Ellis felt the charger ram into him sending him towards a wall and was immediately being slammed into the ground. Feeling grateful that none of the zombies were trying to stop him, Nick went over to the charger and shot him until it died and released Ellis. Nick then turned and protected Ellis from the zombies while he was getting up. Finally after killing all of the zombies they all started running towards the safe house with Coach in the lead. At the very last possible minute Coach tried to stop himself from touching the witch, but it was too late. She had been sitting down crying right in front of the safe room door and she screamed in fury as she lashed out at him bringing him down in one hit.

"COACH!" Rochelle and Ellis yelled as they, along with Nick, quickly shot at her.

The witch died just as she was about to rip into him. Rochelle started helping him up.

"You alright, Coach?" Rochelle asked.

"Yeah, I can't believe the stupid bitch was in front of the safe house! If I hadn't run over here and had seen her sooner this wouldn't have happened." Coach said wincing as she helped him to the room.

"Finally the fucking safe room!" Nick sighed as he and Ellis went in and quickly closed and barred the door behind them.

Nick then turned his attention to Coach. Rochelle immediately removed her health kit from her back and started healing him.

"I didn't think it was possible for the person who was best at killing witches to get taken down by one. You're losing your touch, Coach." Nick said.

Coach glared at him making him shut up.

Author's note: Ok this has to be the longest chapter I have ever written. I left out a lot of the details for the setting because there was just way too much to put in and I didn't want to have to put everything in mostly because I didn't know how to describe everything even after I finished replaying The Parish again. Yes I finally got off LHP because I actually got all the achievements already lol yeah. For some reason I feel like its really hard to describe the setting in The Parish then it is in the other campaigns except The Passing because that would be hard to do as well. The big fight should be coming up soon maybe even in the next chapter, but not sure yet. Yes there is a tiny bit of EllisxZoey and FrancisxRochelle, but very little since I find both couples cute, but not as cute as NickxEllis. I'll update again soon.


	11. The Parish Fourth Safe House

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Once everyone had been fully healed they all (except Coach) grabbed another health kit from the table as well as ammo and then made their way out the door. Coach was still a little pissed that he let himself get taken down so easily by a witch that he was taking it out on the zombies that were in front of him. Nick, Ellis, and Rochelle stayed behind him afraid that he might accidentally shoot them if any one of them tried to pass him.

"Coach, save your anger for the next witch will ya?" Nick said as Coach kept taking his kills along with a few of Ellis's and Rochelle's.

"Trust me she'll get what's coming to her, but since I don't see or hear her and I feel the need to kill right now these zombies will just have to do." Coach replied shooting the heads off a couple of zombies.

Nick sighed getting agitated that Coach was doing all the work. Once they headed inside yet another building and jumped down from the balcony onto a van was when they heard some of the special infected.

"Hold on, don't jump from the van yet. I see a charger." Coach told them.

They watched as it charged at them and instead it hit the side of the van. Nick snorted.

"How stupid can these guys be?" Nick asked.

"Got it!" Rochelle said as it died but before she could follow the guys a smoker wrapped its tongue around her and started pulling her up, "Help smokers got me!"

The guys had been too busy trying to kill the smoker that was hiding on top of the building that they had just been in when a jockey snuck up behind them. It jumped on top of Ellis and started steering him away just as a group of zombies that were down there with them started surrounding them.

"Fuck! Coach take care of that smoker! I've got a jockey to fucking kill." Nick yelled out.

Nick pulled out the pipe bomb he found in the building and tossed it. He then ran towards Ellis and to Nick's horror saw that he was being steered towards a witch.

"Get this thing off me!" Ellis yelled out having not noticed the witch's angry growl.

"Ellis!" Nick yelled.

Nick caught up just in time to get the jockey off of him and then pulled him away before the witch could start screaming.

"Nick, what are you…oh I didn't see her there." Ellis said watching as she calmed down.

Nick sighed releasing his grip on Ellis's arm.

"There's that fucking bitch!" Coach said going up to her and quickly shooting her in the head.

"You alright there, Ro?" Ellis asked as she walked towards them.

Rochelle nodded.

"I'm fine though I can't say the same for that witch." Rochelle said.

Nick and Ellis turned to watch Coach still shooting at its dead body.

"I'm surprised that I haven't pissed him off to the point of him doing that to me yet." Nick said as he continued on ahead.

"He's not going to try and kill you, Nick. We still need you with us." Ellis told him following right behind him.

"Who are you talking about, Ellis? Because the Coach I know really would leave me to die as he has proven that already before." Nick replied.

"Coach, she's already dead." Rochelle said trying to get him to leave her dead body alone.

"Not yet." Coach told her before shooting the witch's body a few more times, "There now we can go."

"Better yet I'm pretty sure he'd be the one killing me especially if something happened to you or Rochelle." Nick said once he and Ellis turned inside another building which ended up looking like what used to be a bar.

Ellis frowned looking at him.

"How come you and Coach don't get along, Nick?" Ellis asked.

Nick didn't know how to respond to that question as he instead concentrated on killing the zombies that were inside. They made their way upstairs and before it could get away Nick killed the spitter and watched as its goo (acid) spilled all around its dead body. Nick sighed and looked at Ellis.

"Some people just don't, overalls. One look at someone else and a person can immediately tell if they like someone or not and in our case we just ended up not trusting or liking each other."

"Yeah, but after you got to know us at least a little you started to like Ro and me. So I still don't understand why you and Coach still don't like each other." Ellis replied.

"It's complicated."

"Obviously cause I don't follow at all. The both of you are just plain awesome! Coach is great at killin witches and you are always savin and healin me. Without you I'd probably be dead by now and without Coach we'd probably would have had more witch troubles." Ellis told him.

Nick looked at him not sure to be happy about that or to feel guilty that Ellis seemed to rely on him a lot. As soon as the goo cleared and Coach and Rochelle caught up, they headed towards the direction the spitter was just at and turned to the left to get ammo that was in the small room before jumping down to the ground. They could barely hear the tank nearby and Rochelle pulled out the molotov that she had spotted just before they grabbed ammo.

"It's probably around that corner, Ro." Ellis said.

Rochelle nodded walking slowly so as to not accidentally walk right into it.

"Get yer ass in front, Nick!" Coach told him.

"What the fuck for?"

"If the tank is right there he can hit you instead of Rochelle."

Nick gave him a dirty look.

"Don't make him do that, Coach. I can do it!" Ellis said walking right in front of Rochelle.

Nick growled.

"Look what you did, Coach."

"Well then if I were you I'd get up there before he gets hurt." Coach replied.

"I can barely see his arm y'all!" Ellis said just as Nick was about to walk towards him.

"Well he's blocking the doorway to where we need to go. Get ready to back up!" Rochelle told them as she threw the molotov directly towards it.

The tank roared with anger as it came out of 'hiding' and started running towards them. With all of them shooting at it in one direction almost immediately brought the tank down.

"Why couldn't all of the tanks be this easy to kill?" Nick asked passing its dead burning body.

They had to wait for the fire to burn out before they could go through the building. Once they headed inside they made their way to the third floor and grabbed ammo before heading outside again and dropping down to another part of the building and then down to the ground.

"So who's going to alert the horde? We're going to need to bring that board closer to this building we were just standing on to cross to the other side." Rochelle asked shooting at the few zombies that were there.

"I'll do it." Coach replied as he went up and pulled the lever.

"They're coming!" Rochelle said watching as it started moving the board over to where it needed to be before glancing at Nick.

Ellis and Coach went upstairs to stand back on the top of the building.

"You're not going to do it are you?" Rochelle asked as she turned her attention towards the zombies that were showing up and rushing towards them.

Nick didn't respond as he started killing as much zombies as he could. He already knew that he was taking to long to even try to attempt to make Ellis hate him.

'Why the fuck am I hesitating? Normally I would have already pissed whoever off by now, but Ellis…' Nick glanced upwards towards his right and saw that Ellis was covering him and Rochelle from the building.

"Hunter!" Ellis yelled out.

Nick turned and saw that it had pounced on Rochelle. He shoved the zombies away from himself before shooting and killing it. He then felt himself being pulled and immediately felt his body up against a smokers as zombies started attacking him while he was defenseless. He started yelling out for help as he realized that Rochelle was too busy fighting off a big group of zombies that had her surrounded so that left only Ellis who was able to help him.

"Smokers got me!" Nick choked out.

Nick forced himself to try and look up and to his surprise saw that Ellis either hadn't noticed or heard him because Ellis was looking the other way. Finally he started to feel real anger start to consume him.

"Nick!" Rochelle cried out as she limped her way towards him.

Rochelle shot at the zombies before making her way to him and then hit him forcing the smoker to let go of him. She quickly killed it and helped Nick to his feet.

"You alright?" Rochelle asked.

Nick was shaking with anger as he hung on to her for support. After another minute of killing the zombies, the horde started to die down and Rochelle had noticed that they were able to cross to the other side now.

"Come on, Nick. They're waiting for us over there." Rochelle told him.

Nick gritted his teeth as he glared up at Ellis who looked like just now was realizing that he was hurt. Ellis was about to jump down to rush towards him, but Coach grabbed his arm and shook his head. They waited there until Nick and Rochelle got there.

"Nick, you alright?" Ellis asked looking at him worried.

Nick growled as he limped past him. Coach pulled out his pain pills and handed them to Rochelle.

"Thanks." Rochelle said and took some.

"Nick? Nick, hold on!" Ellis said grabbing a hold of Nick's shoulder.

Nick turned to face him angrily.

"You're fucking useless you know that, Ellis?"

"Wha…I…."

"That fucking smoker had me and I was yelling out for help! You were fucking right there, Ellis! I can't believe you didn't help me!" Nick yelled.

"I didn't know! Coach was getting his ass handed to him by a charger and he needed mah help! How was I supposed to know that you were in trouble?" Ellis asked looking at him in surprise and hurt.

Nick snorted.

"Again it's Coach. It's always fucking Coach! Do you like him or something?"

Ellis looked at him horrified and Coach gave him a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look.

"He needed mah help, Nick! How on earth does that imply in any way that I like him?" Ellis asked.

"If he's in trouble and can't help himself you're there. If he needs to be healed and can't do it himself YOU'RE the one who heals him. It's almost the same with Rochelle! How many fucking goddamn times have you saved and healed them compared to with me?"

Ellis didn't say anything as he kept opening and closing his mouth.

"You've lost yer mind, Nick!" Coach told him.

Nick gave Coach the coldest look he had.

"Stay the fuck out of this!" Nick told him.

Coach glared at him before turning to continue through the building with Rochelle quickly following right behind.

"I'm sorry alright, Nick! I'll stay by yer side next time." Ellis finally replied.

Nick shook his head as he took out his pain pills and took some more and then pocketed them again.

"There isn't going to be a next time you fucking loser! I understand now why you're so useless! It's because you got it from that butt buddy of yours!"

Nick finally hit a sensitive chord with him as Ellis's face contorted with fury and he clenched his fists tightly.

"Don't you dare talk about Keith like that!" Ellis yelled.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend your fucking boyfriend!" Nick replied.

Ellis stayed quiet as he continued to get angrier.

"So he was your boyfriend? Let me guess I bet you got your interest in guys from your mom or was it your dad. Either she was a lesbian and wanted to try being with a guy or he ended up being gay and that's why you came out the way you did. They would have been very proud of you." Nick said.

Ellis punched him hard enough to make him fall to the floor. Nick felt something wet coming out of his mouth. He wiped his hand on his mouth and then looked at it and saw blood. He glared up at Ellis and then smirked.

"I didn't think a kid like you had it in you to hit so hard." Nick said.

"You know I thought you were a good guy, Nick, but I was wrong. Coach was right. Yer a fuckin asshole who only thinks about himself. I hope you die out here, Nick cause I don't ever want to see or hear from you again." Ellis told him coldly as he left him there to follow the others.

Nick slowly started getting to his feet feeling completely hurt inside that he had said what he said to Ellis as well as the words that just now came out of Ellis's mouth. Nick sighed angry with himself for even feeling this way in the first place as he went to catch up with the others. Nick hadn't realized as he kept walking that there hadn't been any zombies in his way. He also hadn't realized that he had already caught up with the others and hadn't been paying attention to the fact that he was walking past the zombies without even attempting to kill any of them that were attacking him. Rochelle was the only one attempting to help him out. Surprisingly by the time they got to the safe house, Nick hadn't been jumped, pounced, rammed, vomited or anything that a special infected could have done to him. Coach and Ellis gave him hateful looks before heading up the ladder to heal. Rochelle closed and barred the door behind her and then turned to look at Nick.

"I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing you did it." Rochelle said looking at him worriedly as she saw the look on his face.

Nick had been and was still zoning out, but managed to listen once Rochelle had said something.

"Yeah…yeah he hates me now…" Nick swallowed.

Rochelle looked at him sadly before removing her health kit from her back.

"Here, let me heal you." Rochelle said sympathetically.

Author's notes: Well finally Nick managed to get Ellis to really hate him, but with Ellis being Ellis he's going to end up feeling guilty about it later and horrified the moment Rochelle tells him the truth. It's getting emotional I know which is how I wanted this to sort of end up being. Actually once again today I was playing as Nick and again I got frustrated with Ellis being the absolute last resort to heal me that I kinda did take it out on him in this story. Uh yeah did not intend for that to happen, but it did seeing as I was kinda getting annoyed with Rochelle healing me all of the fucking goddamn time (sighs) not even Coach helped me. I think I need to buy another game before I get really bummed out about this, but seeing as Halo Reach doesn't come out till next month and Black ops for another two months after that it leaves me with only one option which is to buy COD4 Modern Warfare. I tend to get a tad bit emotional when I don't get the person I want to heal me specifically when I'm Nick as you can see and extremely jealous when Nick heals someone else other then me (Ellis) which is rare since recently he's mostly only being healing me. I don't know why but I like Rochelle better in stories then I do in game. I like her, but she gets annoying after awhile. I'll admit it I'm a bitch and clearly possessive. XD


	12. The Parish Rescue

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

"How's your leg? Are you still in pain?" Rochelle asked looking at Nick.

They had already talked to a person on a walkie talkie and had lowered the bridge. They were told that they needed to cross the bridge to get to the other side where the helicopter was going to be waiting for them. Nick and Rochelle stayed behind Coach and Ellis and watched as they started walking. Nick shook his head.

"I haven't felt any pain for awhile now." Nick replied as he and Rochelle followed behind Coach and Ellis.

There were tons of cars everywhere making it easier for a tank to kill them. A charger could even charge them off the bridge if they happened to be on the sides instead of in the middle.

"Try to stay away from the sides y'all!" Coach yelled out as soon as he heard a charger.

Ellis killed a few zombies before he turned to see that the charger was right behind Nick and Rochelle.

"Ro, behind you!" Ellis yelled out trying to shoot it without accidentally hurting Rochelle.

The charger had already started charging at them, but at the last second Rochelle and Nick quickly moved out of the way. It then headed back for Rochelle, but with Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle shooting at it, it was quickly killed. Nick hissed in pain as he felt a bullet barely scrape against his left arm.

"Shit, you want to watch where you're aiming that thing?" Nick said glaring at Ellis.

Ellis shrugged.

"Yer fault for getting in the way, Nick." Ellis told him before going to catch up with Coach.

Nick sighed before killing a hunter that was trying to pounce on him. Once Ellis was out of earshot, Nick looked over at Rochelle.

"I'm starting to miss the kid who would be apologizing his ass off for accidentally shooting someone." Nick said.

"You want to tell him the truth?" Rochelle asked as they went to keep up with Coach and Ellis.

"Fuck, no. I guess I just kinda thought that he wasn't going to hate me no matter what I said or did." Nick replied.

Nick and Rochelle ended up killing whatever zombies that Coach and Ellis hadn't killed. Coach was heard yelling that a jockey was on him, but as soon as they caught up, Ellis had already taken care of it.

"Nick, are you sure this is what you want? I mean I know you're regretting it, but wouldn't you rather have it…end….with you guys still being friends at least?" Rochelle asked figuring because off all the noise Ellis and Coach wouldn't have been able to hear her.

"No this isn't what I want, but it has to be done, Ro. What would you have done if you knew that you were carrying the infection and you and that lame ass biker guy were getting 'close' or at least you were with him and you thought that there was a chance that he would totally lose it if he knew?" Nick asked glancing at her.

Rochelle didn't respond as she saw a spitter just ahead of them on top one of the cars and killed it just as it spat where Ellis and Coach were at stuck trying to kill the zombies that had them surrounded because a boomer had vomited on them. Nick shook his head as Rochelle ran towards them to help them out. Ellis and Coach quickly jumped on top of a car before they could take any more damage. Nick saw the boomer clawing at Ellis and with one quick shot the boomer exploded almost sending Ellis really close to the side of the bridge. As soon as he was able to see again Ellis turned and glared angrily at Nick.

"Are you tryin to get me killed? I nearly fell off the bridge!" Ellis yelled.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"Relax you stupid hick you're fine. It's your fault for being in the way when I shot at the boomer. Don't you at least have half a mind to shove it away from you?" Nick replied.

"I know you hate me so if yer gunna kill me why don't you just do it yerself!" Ellis said angrily.

Nick snorted.

"Says the guy who wants me dead. Trust me kid if I wanted you dead I would have left you to rot back in Savannah." Nick told him showing no emotions on his face.

Ellis's anger quickly left him and was immediately replaced with a look of guilt.

"Could y'all keep up please? I'd rather not end up gettin mahself way ahead of y'all and then sumethin happens and I can't get to you or y'all can't get to me in time." Coach said having already jumped off the car and started walking again killing whatever zombie he can find in the process.

Ignoring Ellis, Nick went on ahead with Rochelle quickly catching up to him.

"Did Ellis really tell you that?" Rochelle asked feeling completely surprised that Ellis could say something like that to anyone especially Nick.

"Tell me what?" Nick asked.

Coach yelled out for help as he felt a smoker's tongue start to pull him upwards. Nick looked up and shot at the tongue and then at the smoker and to his surprise managed to kill it before it could get away.

"You know what, Nick. Did he really say that he wanted you…" Rochelle hesitated.

Nick sighed really not wanting to talk about it.

"Nick?"

"What do you think, Rochelle?" Nick replied.

"I can't believe he would say something like that!" Rochelle said completely surprised.

"I can considering I was the one who was pissing him off." Nick told her and then hesitated for a few seconds before turning to look at her, "Hey do you think you can do something for me?"

Rochelle looked at him curious as to what he wanted her to do.

"Sure what is it?" Rochelle asked.

"Once this is all over could you tell Ellis for me that I said I was sorry?" Nick asked looking at her.

Rochelle looked at him for a few seconds before she realized what he was telling her to do. Her eyes went wide with fear.

"Nick…"

"Just wait a couple of days ok? Better yet wait a few months. I just don't want him thinking that I died hating him. At least this way he won't lose it as much as he would if you tell him right away." Nick told her.

"I thought you didn't want him to…"

"Not now, but I think it'll be alright for you to tell him the truth later." Nick whispered to her as he saw Ellis almost right next to them.

"But, Nick he's not going to…"

"Promise me, Rochelle."

Rochelle sighed and nodded.

"Ok I promise."

"What are you promisin, Ro?" Ellis asked looking at her and then at Nick who immediately looked away.

"Nothing sweetie." Rochelle replied.

The ground started shaking and they all immediately knew what that meant.

"Tank!" Coach yelled out as he tossed out the molotov he picked up at the safe house

The tank was lit on fire as it started running towards them. Nick cursed as they all started shooting at it while trying to back up.

"Shit there's too many fucking cars around! If we don't kill the tank now it could very easily kill us with either the cars or hitting us off the bridge! Fuck!" Nick yelled cursing again for having to reload.

Having been too busy trying to reload Nick hadn't heard the jockey that had snuck up behind them and jumped on top of him steering him until he found himself starting to fall off the bridge.

"Shit!" Nick quickly grabbed a hold of something before he actually did fall into the water below.

"Nick!" Rochelle yelled running to go help him up.

She fell to her knees and grabbed a hold of his arms. The tank was fast approaching as Nick could barely see the flames heading closer towards them.

"Rochelle, the tank!" Nick yelled.

Rochelle screamed once the tank got close enough to hit her to the side. She quickly got up and backed away to shoot at it. Coach immediately went to help her out while he was shooting it at the same time. Nick struggled to hang on as he tried to pull himself up, but couldn't.

"Goddammit…" Nick whispered and then winced when he heard the tank hitting the cars.

Nick felt himself starting to lose his grip and wondered if it was better to just go out this way or wait until they got to New Orleans and then get shot over there. Nick glanced down and immediately knew that if he fell he would more then likely get killed from the impact or at least knocked unconscious.

'Well you got your wish Ellis.' Nick thought.

He was just about to let go when all of a sudden Ellis showed up and grabbed a hold of him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Nick asked.

"Gettin you back up what do you think I'm doin?" Ellis told him as he started pulling him back up.

"What about the fucking tank?"

"Killed it."

"Well, where's Rochelle and Coach?" Nick asked.

"We're fine, Nick!" Rochelle yelled out to him.

Nick sighed with relief the moment he was on ground again.

"Well now that the tank's been taken care of let's go!" Coach told them.

Nick nodded as he stood up and followed right after him. They started getting on top of a gas truck and walked on top of it onto a bus and then they were back on the bridge again.

"Big holes!" Nick yelled out.

"Yeah, Nick we see them now shut up and keep runnin!" Coach yelled.

They kept on the left hand side, killing all of the zombies that suddenly showed up and were rushing at them, while they passed the holes. To their horror a charger showed up right in front of them and was trying to charge directly at Coach, but fortunately it missed sending itself right off the bridge.

"Y'all I see the helicopter!" Ellis yelled out.

"We're almost there just keep running!" Nick said.

They walked on top of yet another bus and then jumped to the ground. More zombies came rushing at them trying to stop them from getting to the helicopter.

"There's the turnoff!" Coach yelled shoving zombies away from himself.

He and Rochelle ran on ahead and just as Nick was about to follow after killing the zombies that were blocking his away he heard Ellis's scream. He turned and saw that a hunter had pounced on him. Nick ran towards them and shoved it right off of Ellis and continued hitting until it eventually died. Nick helped Ellis up and pushed him to keep moving. They got on the turnoff, passing a couple of tents along the way, and then climbed down a ladder and ran towards the helicopter.

"We made it!" Rochelle yelled out happily.

Coach turned around to see if everyone was accounted for only to discover that another tank was right behind them.

"How the fuck did we not see that comin? RUN!" Coach yelled.

Nick and Ellis glanced behind them and ran faster. Rochelle went inside the helicopter and waited for the guys to hurry up. The tank picked up a rock and hurled it towards Nick and Ellis, but it missed at the very last second almost hitting Nick in the leg.

"Guys hurry up!" Rochelle yelled heading towards the entrance of the helicopter to shoot at the tank and at the few zombies that were still trying to rush at them.

"Get on that helicopter!" Coach told them waiting for Nick and Ellis to pass him before following right behind shooting the tank as he went.

The moment they were all in the helicopter it took off and the rest of the bridge exploded.

"Finally we made it out of here! Can you believe it?" Rochelle said sitting down with a huge smile on her face.

"It was hard to get here, but man we all pulled through. We don't have to worry about this shit no more!" Coach said grinning as he sat down next to her.

'Yeah hopefully.' Nick thought as he took a seat on the opposite side of the helicopter.

"What's wrong, Nick? I would think that you'd be happy to be gettin out of this mess." Coach asked looking at him.

Nick shrugged.

"I guess."

Coach and Rochelle continued talking. Ellis smiled at them, but then he found himself staring at Nick wondering why he was suddenly so quiet and was looking away from everyone else. He was about to apologize to Nick, but then remembered exactly why he was still mad at him and instead joined in on Rochelle and Coach's conversation, the feeling of guilt slowly starting to consume him.

Author's note: Yeah I know off topic, but after I saw this weeks blog post I'm starting to wonder if they really are coming out with the next add on for the first l4D. It's taking fucking forever and I thought it was supposed to come out a month after the passing which its been more then a month so im getting agitated because im starting to think that its probably not going to come out until next year if at all (sighs). Another thing I've been worried about is if they kill off a l4d2 character im scared its going to be Coach. I know it's not going to be Nick or Ellis because everyone loves them and not Rochelle either probably because she's a girl (sighs). I like Coach I like him being around I'll cry if he dies T_T. Rochelle I'll deal and Nick or Ellis well….I'll be listening to sad songs for along time. Unless they make an add on where Francis and his team join Rochelle's team then that's a different story (I'll still be sad for Coach though). I don't know if it will happen again but if it does ive got a really bad feeling its going to be Coach (sniff) NO!


	13. Evac Station

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

After a couple of hours the helicopter finally landed where the evac station was at. Rochelle looked out the window and saw that there were tons of people there and a few of them had been waiting for them to show up. The moment they left the helicopter they were immediately escorted inside the building where even more survivors like them were at.

"I'm surprised that this many people made it here." Rochelle said looking around.

"Is this everyone who survived the infection?" Nick asked.

"No. There's some more in the other evac stations, but it seems as though most of the survivors are here." One of the guys who led them inside said.

"Meanin not a lot of people survived. That ain't good." Coach said.

"Hey is there a way we can find out if any of our family members are still alive?" Ellis asked worriedly.

"Yeah, but you're going to have to wait in line. The lists are over there saying who's dead, who's alive, and who hasn't been found yet." The guy replied.

"I'm guessing the dead and the missing lists are a lot longer then the alive one." Nick said already knowing that his whole family was dead.

The guy nodded as he led them to another room and opened the door.

"Before you can do anything we need to take a sample of your blood just to make sure that none of you have the infection."

"Yer not gunna find it in any of us cause we're all immune." Ellis told him.

"It's just a precaution. We don't want anything to happen here so we're making sure everyone is clean." The guy said.

Rochelle glanced at Nick for a second before going inside. The guys waited until she came back out and then Coach went in. As soon as he was done it was Ellis's turn and then finally Nick went in. He already knew what they were going to say about him, but apparently it was going to take a couple of hours for them to get the results. He left and found only Rochelle waiting for him.

"Let me guess Coach and Ellis went to grab something to eat." Nick said.

Rochelle crossed her arms and nodded.

"Yeah, so did they tell you the same thing? That we have to wait a few hours before they get the results?" Rochelle asked.

Nick sighed.

"Yeah."

Nick and Rochelle slowly made their way to the cafeteria where they saw Coach and Ellis standing in line waiting to get their food. Rochelle looked really worried making Nick stop and look at her.

"You know what's going to happen to me, Rochelle. You saw what they did to other people while we were still fighting to get to the helicopter. Coach didn't even want to believe me when I mentioned it to him and I don't think they were infected." Nick told her.

"They had to of been otherwise why would they…" Rochelle bit her lip.

"Because they're a bunch of fucking assholes. They'll kill anyone carrying the infection thinking that they'll turn. Instead they're just killing off a bunch of innocent people and they don't care!" Nick whispered.

"Carrying isn't the same as actually turning is it?" Rochelle asked.

"To these guys yeah it is."

Nick and Rochelle started walking towards Ellis and Coach, but Rochelle suddenly stopped again and grabbed Nick's arm.

"Why don't we just get out of here that way you don't have to…"

"Ro, do you really want to go back out there with all those zombies?" Nick asked.

Rochelle sighed.

"No, but…"

"I don't and I know Coach and Ellis wouldn't want to either. Besides I'd hate to see you and Ellis get killed out there. This way you guys could at least try to have normal lives again."

Rochelle glanced at Ellis who was waving at her to go to him and Coach.

"What about your life, Nick?" Rochelle asked looking back at him.

"What life? All I've done is gambled, drink, conned people out of their money and deserted my family. I don't have anything to live for not really." Nick said.

"What about Ellis?"

Both Nick and Rochelle looked at him. Ellis quickly turned away the moment he saw Nick staring at him.

"He'll be fine. He's got you and Coach looking after him unless for some reason you're planning on leaving him." Nick replied looking back at Rochelle.

"No I'm not." Rochelle said.

"Good."

"I can't believe you're ok with this!"

Nick shrugged.

"I'm still wondering how many more people were here before they were killed." Nick said changing the subject.

Rochelle looked at him sadly before they went towards Coach and Ellis.

"About time y'all got here. We were savin yer spots in line!" Coach told them.

Nick and Rochelle stood in between Ellis and Coach and waited until it was their turn to get their food. Once they did they saw that most of the tables were already taken so they ended up sitting at the furthest table.

"Man, finally sumethin good!" Coach said happily picking up his hamburger and taking a big bite from it.

"Easy there, Coach or you're going to finish it before you can actually enjoy it." Rochelle said smiling slightly as she took a small bite out of hers.

Nick wasn't even looking at his plate. Instead he was looking somewhere else his eyes glazed over obviously thinking about something else not even noticing that his stomach was growling or that Ellis was looking at him.

"So, y'all reckon they're gunna give us a room?" Ellis asked as he ate some of his french fries.

"Boy, I don't think they're gunna let us go for some time. At least not until they know we're clean so probably." Coach said putting his hamburger down and taking a drink of his Coca-cola.

"I just hope they don't make us sleep on the floor." Rochelle said.

"I still don't see why they needed to take our blood. I mean we're all clean cause if we ain't we'd be changin." Ellis said looking at Rochelle and Coach and then glanced at Nick.

"Ellis, sweetie it's more complicated then that." Rochelle told him.

"How complicated can it be?" Ellis asked.

"Don't tell me that yer listenin to that asshole now, Ro." Coach said glaring at Nick who was still not paying attention.

"Coach, how else do you explain what we saw before?"

"I ain't seen nuthin!"

"Coach."

"No it doesn't make any sense!"

"Are you gunna eat that?" Ellis suddenly asked.

Coach and Rochelle looked at Ellis who was looking at Nick completely annoyed. Nick glanced at him and sighed.

"I'm not hungry." Nick replied.

"Yer stomach's been growling, Nick and it's gettin on mah nerves." Ellis told him.

Nick snorted.

"What the fuck is your problem, kid?"

"What's mah problem? What the hell is yours?" Ellis asked angrily.

Nick frowned as he turned to face him.

"You really want to get into it again? Fine. You already heard all of what I had to say." Nick told him.

Nick hadn't looked at all close to being mad as Ellis glared angrily at him.

"What the hell gives you the right to not only insult mah friend Keith, but also mah mom?"

"Don't you mean boyfriend?"

"He wasn't mah boyfriend! I wasn't all that popular back home and he was one of the few kids who actually wanted to be mah friend! I never knew mah dad cause he left when I was real little so all I had was mah mom and she raised me to the best of her ability! She always put me first even ahead of herself so fuck you for insultin them! You must have never had a family or if you did they treated you like shit cause the way you are I can't see why they would treat you any differently!" Ellis said.

"Ellis…" Rochelle whispered.

"You don't think about anyone but yerself! You would have left us all to die if it wasn't for the fact that you needed us to keep you alive! I don't even know why the fuck I saved you from falling off the bridge considerin you definitely would have done that to any one of us!" Ellis yelled.

Thankfully no one else had heard them because of how loud everyone was talking. Nick looked at him slightly hurt. Ellis noticed but didn't care as he grabbed his plate and stood up.

"Ellis, where are you going?" Rochelle asked.

"I'm not hungry anymore." Ellis said as he went to throw away the rest of his food.

"About time the boy realized how much of an ass you are, Nick." Coach said finishing his food and then went to follow him.

"He doesn't mean it, Nick." Rochelle told him, "You know that right?"

Nick started to feel slightly sick as he nodded.

"Yeah, I know."

Rochelle looked at him.

"You might want to eat at least some of your food."

Nick shook his head.

"I already said I'm not hungry."

"Well, ok…"

A couple of hours later after having been told their sleeping arrangements which included a room with only one bed in it and a small bathroom, the results had come in. The guy from earlier started making his way towards their room. Rochelle had been out looking for the others, but ended up going back to the room after searching for almost fifteen minutes.

"Where do you think Coach and Ellis went? I couldn't find them anywhere." Rochelle asked as soon as she entered the room.

Nick had been lying on the bed and was looking up at the ceiling. He shrugged.

"Don't worry about it, Rochelle. There's a lot of people out there. Chances are you probably passed by them."

"Probably."

Rochelle sighed as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry y'know for not trusting you before." Rochelle said turning to look at him.

"It's fine don't worry about it." Nick told her.

"No it's not. We were supposed to be a team and here I was siding with Coach thinking that you were going to abandon us, but you didn't."

"I don't blame you for not trusting me. I was thinking about it at first, but then I decided to stay with you guys and don't get me wrong it was to keep my ass alive, but after awhile…." Nick sat up and looked down at the covers.

Rochelle looked at him waiting for him to respond.

"Yeah?" Rochelle urged him.

Nick hesitated as he looked at her.

"After awhile it kinda started feeling like I had a new family. Having to do the same thing everyday it definitely started feeling like it."

"Can I ask what happened with you and your family?" Rochelle asked.

"There's not much to say. Ellis was partially right. I had a little sister and our parents loved her. They hated me and I never knew why in fact I still don't. That's why I haven't talked to them in almost twenty years. I don't really want to go into the details." Nick said.

"Were you ever married?" Rochelle asked.

"Yeah, but it didn't last. Turns out she only wanted me for my money. Some life huh?"

There was a knock on the door making Nick and Rochelle look at it.

"I wonder who that is. It can't be Coach and Ellis because they don't know that this is our room yet." Rochelle said getting up to open it.

'I can guess who it is.' Nick thought.

Rochelle gasped when she saw that it was the guy who had led them inside the building the moment they arrived.

"Thank you mam," he said and then looked at Nick "Are you Nick?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Nick asked already knowing what was going to happen.

"Follow me, please."

Author's note: First off sorry I wasn't aware that The Parish took place in New Orleans my bad since I had no idea. Second it looks like I'm not going to be able to finish the story before school starts which is next week since there's at least two more chapters. Third well im not sure how busy im going to be so sorry if my chapters end up being late. Ive been kinda stressing over school because they're taking their sweet ass time to process my fafsa. It could have paid for my classes and books but instead I paid for two of my books and my dad paid for my classes. I still need to get one more book and it costs 210 dollars! T_T I need the fafsa to hurry up and go through so I can get the federal pell grant and it can pay for my classes and books next time (sighs). The only good news is that the story is almost over unless you don't like that then its bad news I guess.


	14. Apologize

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Rochelle was wide eyed as she looked from the guy in front of her and then to Nick who was getting off the bed and then walked towards the door.

"You might want to say your goodbyes because you might not see your friends for awhile." The guy told him.

Nick sighed rubbing the back of his head.

"I don't need to. I wasn't really close to the other guys who came with us." Nick said.

"Well if you're sure…"

"I'm sure."

Just as Nick was about to follow the guy out of the room, Rochelle flung her arms around him and hugged him tight.

"I'm so sorry, Nick." Rochelle whispered as tears started to slightly blur her vision.

"It's ok. Just make sure to tell Ellis that I'm not mad at him." Nick told her as he hugged her back smiling slightly, "Kid's growing up being able to defend himself like that."

Rochelle laughed as she pulled away from him.

"He was never a kid, Nick. We just treated him like he was one."

"Maybe you were, but I wasn't. To me he'll always be the kid who wanted to go on the rides at Whispering Oak. He'll also be the one who clearly never learned how to give up." Nick chuckled.

"If only Ellis was here to hear how much you're proud of him." Rochelle smiled.

"I wouldn't say proud more like impressed. There was no way I would have been able to stay that positive about everything the way he did." Nick replied.

"It's funny considering when you first met him you couldn't stand him."

"I know. Believe me I know." Nick said.

"Nick, you know he's not going to take it very well no matter how long I wait to tell him." Rochelle told him.

Nick sighed as he nodded.

"Which is why he's going to need you and Coach to be with him."

"Well you know Coach thinks of Ellis like a son and you already know that I'm not going anywhere." Rochelle said.

"I know you're not."

After a few seconds of silence Rochelle spoke again.

"It's too bad he'll never know how much you love him."

Nick didn't say anything as he walked out of the room.

"Are you ready now?" The guy asked.

"Yeah."

"I'm guessing you already know why I asked you to say your goodbyes."

Nick nodded as they started walking.

"I'm terribly sorry. I really am, but as it is strict around here for us to kill anyone who's got it in their blood we have no choice."

"I get it. You people don't want the infection to spread anymore then it already has." Nick snorted, "Wasn't there a better way besides killing off innocent people?"

"I'm sure the people running this place had their reasons…" the guy replied hesitantly.

"What you don't even know why you guys decided to take this route?" Nick asked.

"I'm just a messenger. They don't tell me shit on what they're planning to do. They just tell me to get certain people and to take them somewhere else." The guy sighed.

Nick looked at him as they passed by the cafeteria where a bunch of people were still at and headed down a hallway until they got to the very end where you could either turn to the left or to the right. He rolled his eyes as the guy knocked on the door.

"Don't want anyone to hear you guys killing off people? Bunch of fucking assholes…"

"The room is over there." The guy pointed to the left.

Nick turned and saw a see through wall right next to the door and just barely heard the sound of a gun going off. Nick raised an eyebrow as he turned to face in front of him.

"So what room is this?" Nick asked.

"It's the waiting room. They've got two rooms on both left and right sides of the hallway and as you heard they're both in use right now."

Nick looked at him in shock.

"Just how many people are you guys planning to kill?"

"They've been doing this since the infection hit and well, they've been killing a lot."

"How much is a lot?" Nick asked.

The guy looked nervous.

"Uh too many to count?"

Nick knew that this shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, but instead he ended up speechless. The door opened and the guy pushed him inside before someone else closed the door behind him. Nick looked around the room and to his horror saw a few children amongst the group of people.

"Sit down."

Nick turned and before he could respond he was pushed making him fall to the ground. He glared up at the guy.

"What the fuck was that for?"

"Do what I say or I'll send you to your early grave!" The guy told him holding a gun right towards Nick's chest.

Nick snorted as people started screaming.

"You assholes are already going to do it so why wait?"

The guy was tempted to shoot him right there, but then someone spoke on the intercom telling him to not shoot him. He lowered his weapon and stepped back. Nick shook his head wondering if it was because hearing a gun going off in this room would be a lot louder then it would be in the other rooms.

"Wait for your name to be called. If you so much as try to escape I'll shoot you where you stand." The guy told him.

"Whatever."

Almost half an hour passed by before Rochelle finally found Coach and Ellis. They had been back at the cafeteria sitting at an empty table completely bored out of their minds.

"Where have you guys been? I've been looking everywhere for you." Rochelle said sitting down next to Coach.

"Sorry, Ro. We were busy walkin around talkin about some stuff." Ellis told her.

"Yeah like how there's no air in here!" Coach complained.

Rochelle snorted.

"You can't be serious."

"It's stuffy in here, baby girl. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel suffocated in here with all these people." Coach sighed, "By the way where's that boyfriend of yours?"

Rochelle looked at him horrified. She glanced at Ellis who looked at her completely hurt.

"Nick isn't my boyfriend, Coach!" Rochelle told him.

"Sure seems like it to me with how much you've been with him recently." Coach said looking at her.

"You and Ellis hated him. What was I supposed to do abandon him like you guys did?" Rochelle asked.

Ellis rubbed the back of his head nervously as he looked around.

"That was the basic idea yeah." Coach replied.

"Coach, we were supposed to be working as a team! I was starting to feel bad that no one was watching his back!" Rochelle said, "How can you still hate him even after we all finally got rescued? He helped us get here!"

Coach rolled his eyes.

"So? Just cause he helped us get here doesn't mean I'm obligated to like him now." Coach replied.

"At least you admitted that he did help us out!" Rochelle said before looking at Ellis, "I'm surprised you're not jumping in here."

"Uh…"

Coach shook his head.

"Reason he's not jumpin in is cause we were talkin about Nick for the most part and…"

"Yeah I kinda figured." Rochelle sighed.

"…and after awhile he started feelin guilty about what he had said to Nick and wanted to go and apologize to him. I kept tellin him that it wasn't a good idea…"

Rochelle glared at him.

"…but we went back to the table and found that you and Nick had already left." Coach said.

"Yeah because we were finally shown where we would be sleeping for tonight." Rochelle replied.

"Please tell me we got us a couple of rooms." Coach said.

"Only one and it has a king sized bed. Sorry, but I'm not sharing with you, Coach." Rochelle told him.

Coach sighed.

"Well it never hurts to sleep on the floor."

"Ellis, you can sleep with me if you want." Rochelle said.

Ellis hadn't been paying attention. He kept looking around for any sign of Nick.

"Ellis?" Rochelle asked.

Ellis swallowed.

"Ro, where's Nick?" Ellis asked looking at her like a kicked puppy.

Rochelle hesitated as she removed her hand from his arm. She looked away not wanting to lie to him, but at the same time not wanting to tell the truth either.

"He hates me that's why he ain't here with you. Is he at least in the bedroom? I need to talk to him."

Rochelle bit her lip refusing to make eye contact. Coach frowned as he looked at her.

"Rochelle, please it's really important that I know where he is." Ellis pleaded.

The words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

"He's gone, Ellis."

Those three words made Ellis look at her in horror. He swallowed.

"W-Where did he go? He can't have gone too far." Ellis started to stand up.

"No, sweetie not gone as in he left. Gone as in…"

Ellis turned completely white.

"What are you talkin about, baby girl?" Coach asked worriedly as he saw tears start to form in her eyes.

Rochelle started shaking as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"He was bit."

"What?" Coach asked.

"W-When the tank knocked Ellis out c-cold and Nick got him to the s-safe house, he was b-bit by the hunter."

"When was this?"

"W-When we were g-getting the gas to Virgil."

Ellis was at a loss of words as he started looking around for Nick.

"Ellis, s-sweetie…" Rochelle got up and followed after him.

Ellis was yelling out Nick's name as he moved passed people that were walking by and looking at him. Rochelle grabbed his arm making him turn to look at her.

"You sure he ain't in the room? He probably just wanted you to say that to make me feel bad about what I said." Ellis asked

"No, sweetie he isn't in the room." Rochelle said tears falling down her face, "About half an hour ago the same guy who brought us inside told him that he needed to say his goodbyes."

"What the hell for?"

"Ellis, you already know what for." Coach said having followed after Rochelle.

Ellis shook his head as he looked at them wide eyed.

"No I don't!"

"Sweetie, he's carrying the infection. He's been carrying it since before Virgil picked us up." Rochelle told him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ellis asked tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Because Nick didn't want you to know."

The tears fell from his eyes as it finally made sense to him as to why Nick didn't want him to look at his leg.

"B-But I didn't see any b-bite marks on his leg w-when the both of us were t-takin care of him."

"It was because the blood got in the way." Rochelle replied looking at him worriedly.

Ellis started falling apart right in front of them. He was shaking and was about to turn around to start calling out for him again, but Rochelle didn't let go of his arm. He turned back to look at her and started sobbing.

"Ro, p-please let me go…I have to find him…"

Rochelle bit her lip as more tears fell down her face.

"Ellis, Nick wanted me to tell you that he was sorry about what he told you. He didn't mean any of it. He just thought that you hating him would make it easier for you to deal once he was gone."

"What?" Ellis's voice got quieter.

"Also, he's not mad at you, sweetie. He really wanted you to know that. He also wanted to tell you how proud he was of you for being able to stand up for yourself the way you did." Rochelle said smiling slightly at him.

They didn't say anything for a few seconds. Ellis shook his head refusing to believe what Rochelle had told him.

"He ain't dead. He ain't." Ellis sniffed as he wiped away the tears on his face.

"Ellis, sweetie, don't do this to yourself…" Rochelle pleaded.

"No. I'm gunna find him. I'm gunna find him and I'm gunna apologize to him. He's gotta be around here somewhere." Ellis said.

Rochelle watched sadly as Ellis started asking people if they saw a guy in a white suit. After having watched everyone that had been in the room with him leave, Nick's name was finally called. He stood up and was escorted into the room on the right. He was forced to stand up against the wall and handcuffed on either side.

"Seriously, is this really necessary?" Nick asked looking at his escort and the shooter annoyed.

"It would be really annoying if you tried to get away." The escort said.

Nick snorted.

"Was this specifically made for me? because really I wasn't planning on going anywhere." Nick told them.

"Don't think you're something special because you're not. People tend to try and run as soon as they find out what's going to happen to them." The escort replied glaring at him.

"I wonder why that is." Nick said sarcastically.

"Could you hurry up and reload your pistol already? I'm getting sick and tired of talking to this guy." he said.

"Relax, I'm done. You can go." The shooter said taking the gun off safe mode and pointing it directly at Nick's chest.

"Finally."

The escort left leaving the shooter and Nick alone in the room. Nick wasn't afraid. Having been close to death so many times before even before the infection had prepared him for this moment. He promised himself he wasn't going to think about Ells in these last few moments of his life as he closed his eyes and waited for the bullet to enter his chest.

"Nick!"

Nick opened his eyes in surprise barely able to hear someone yell out his name. He looked towards the see through wall and to his horror saw Ellis banging on it. The kid's eyes were wide with fear as he went to the door and started trying to kick it down.

"Who the hell is that?" The shooter asked a he looked in the same direction.

Coach and Rochelle had shown up and Coach immediately went to help Ellis out with the door. Rochelle watched wide eyed as she saw the shooter glare at them.

"They shouldn't be here."

The person on the intercom told him to get on with it while Coach pushed Ellis aside so he could use his full force on the door. Ellis went back to look at Nick tears streaming down his face as soon as he saw Nick slightly smile at him before closing his eyes and hearing the sounds of the door, the gunshot, and Ellis's scream.

"NICK!"

Author's note: I literally started crying writing the last parts of this chapter starting from Rochelle finding Coach and Ellis till the end. I know it's a bit redundant since I'm doing the same thing as I did in my last two l4d stories. I'm almost positive that this is my last l4d story since obviously I cant think of anything else that doesn't include bringing somebody back from the dead (man I'm stupid) I think. Also I'm fully aware of the fact that I tend to use run on sentences a lot. Thing is I think I talk the same as I write so I guess that explains that. Also kind of important if you guys were hoping for a sex scene well I'm kinda stupid in that area. I have absolutely no idea how to write something like that and not only that I kinda don't want to seeing as its very common in tons of other stories and I just plain don't want to. I'm much more into their actual relationship then in them having sex. Sorry. I just wanted my stories to at least be different that way. Again sorry for the disappointment.


	15. Silent Lucidity

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Ellis was shaking; standing there in front of the door just barely inside the small room. His eyes were wide and full of fear as he saw blood coming out of Nick's chest. Ellis ran towards him and clutched tightly to the front of Nick's jacket. He looked up into Nick's face swallowing as he gently started shaking him.

"Nick?" Ellis asked quietly.

Nick's eyes were closed and Ellis started thinking that he was just trying to make him feel worse about he had said before. Ellis shook him harder hoping that it would get his attention.

"Nick, I need to tell you sumethin and I can't do it if yer gunna play games with me like this." Ellis's voice started to quiver as he kept shaking him.

After having knocked the shooter out cold, Coach and Rochelle stood right behind Ellis as they looked at him sadly.

"Ellis, sweetie he's…"

"Look at me." Ellis said ignoring Rochelle as he moved his right hand up to touch Nick's cheek.

"Boy, he can't…"

"Please, man. I'm sorry. Just say sumethin. You can even call me a stupid hick if you want cause I know I deserve it." Ellis's voice was getting quieter as he kept trying to get Nick to respond to him, "Nick?"

Ellis leaned closer to him and realized that Nick wasn't breathing. He felt his heart shatter into pieces as he struggled to get air inside his own body while at the same time the tears started to fall down his face. Coach was about to go towards Ellis, but Rochelle held him back shaking her head. She looked around the room and saw that the key to Nick's handcuffs was on the table behind them. After a few seconds Ellis looked back up at Nick his eyes completely red from crying as he cupped Nick's face with his hands and kissed him. Not feeling Nick kissing him back, Ellis started crying louder as he pulled away from him and let his head rest against Nick's chest. Rochelle went over towards them with the key and unlocked the handcuffs from both of Nick's wrists. Nick would have fallen if Ellis hadn't had his arms wrapped around him and instead Ellis felt himself fall on his knees with Nick still in his arms. Ellis pulled back to look at Nick's face again.

"P-Please don't l-leave me here by mahself, N-Nick. I n-need you to be w-with me." Ellis whispered holding tightly to him.

_"What the hell were you thinking, Overalls?" Nick asked as he started healing Ellis._

_ "What was I supposed to do? You were about to get killed by the tank!" Ellis replied wincing as Nick stitched up his wounds._

_ Nick sighed._

_ "The helicopter was right there. All I had to do was move to the side and pass it. Besides you guys were already shooting at it from the helicopter."_

_ "But you were surrounded by too many zombies!"_

_ "And you couldn't take care of them from the helicopter? Ellis c'mon man."_

_ "I wasn't gunna leave you to die, Nick!" Ellis told him._

_ "Well you running back out to help me almost got you killed! The tank almost knocked you unconscious!" Nick said angrily._

_ "Better me then you considerin for the most part you've been helpin me more then I've helped you!" Ellis said._

_ Nick forced him to turn around to look at him._

_ "Don't you fucking dare say that, Ellis. Why the hell do you think I'm always helping you? I need you to keep my ass alive!"_

_ Ellis looked at him confused._

_ "So why don't you heal Rochelle and Coach since you also need them to help keep you alive?"_

_ "They can take care of themselves, overalls. You can't." Nick told him._

_ "I can do fine on mah own!"_

_ "Maybe, but I'd rather not risk it. You're still a kid after all and a kid always needs to be looked after." Nick smirked as he saw Ellis turning red._

Ellis choked on a sob as he laid his head on Nick's shoulder holding him so close that he was afraid that if he let go, Nick would disappear.

"You were right, Nick. I need to be looked after, but the only one that can do that is you. It was always you." Ellis whispered forcing himself to keep talking, "I didn't…I never wanted you to…how is it that you don't hate me after what I said to you? I didn't mean any of it and now it's…"

The pain and guilt was too much for Ellis that he had to grit his teeth and shut his eyes tightly.

"You never thought about yerself while we were killin zombies. No matter how hurt you were you always healed me first and then Ro would heal you and I…I did nuthin. I did absolutely nuthin! If anybody should be dead it should've been me not you!" Ellis said, "It's all mah fault. If I had seen that tank sooner it wouldn't have backed you into a corner and I wouldn't have gotten mahself knocked out. Meanin you never would have been bitten by that hunter."

"Ellis, don't say that. Nick wouldn't have wanted you to say something like that." Rochelle told him.

"I'm sorry, Nick. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me…" Ellis whispered.

Rochelle bit her lip before turning to look at Coach.

"Coach, where's the defibrillator?" Rochelle asked.

"In the room that they brought us to the moment we got here. They told me to take it off mah back and leave it in the room sayin that I wasn't gunna need it. I don't know if it's still even in there baby girl." Coach told her.

"We need to get it, Coach unless you want Ellis to die of a broken heart!" Rochelle replied as she ran back out of the room.

Coach turned to look at Ellis for a second before following after Rochelle. Ellis stayed holding on to Nick for a few minutes before kissing him one last time on the cheek. He stood up and walked out of the room. Rochelle and Coach quickly made their way to the room and Rochelle slowly opened the door and peered inside. She sighed with relief.

"No ones in here. Keep watch, Coach while I get the defibrillator." Rochelle told him as she snuck inside.

Rochelle looked around and at first she couldn't find it, but the moment she saw another door and opened it she was surprised. She hadn't expected to see so many health kits that were there.

"I might as well take one." Rochelle whispered as she picked one up and moved the rest around.

Rochelle only had to move a few of the health kits before she found the defibrillator. She picked it up and hurried back to Coach.

"Here hide these under your shirt." Rochelle said.

"Can't believe I'm doing this for that son of a…" Coach whispered angrily as he grabbed them and put them under his shirt and tucked his shirt in.

"You're doing this for Ellis, Coach so stop complaining. If anyone asks you ate a lot of food and you're so full you can't eat anymore." Rochelle said looking at him.

Coach sighed and nodded. Ellis walked aimlessly around the place passing people with no notice of what they were saying or doing. He ended up where the lists of people dead, alive, missing was at and without even thinking about it he walked up to the table and looked at the lists (no one was in line). He saw that his mom and the few friends that he had were already found dead and yet the only thought he had in his mind was that without Nick he was already dead. No one had noticed as Ellis eventually found his way outside of the building and continued walking. He noticed that there was a fence separating the evac station from where they had come from. He climbed over it and continued walking, desperately wanting to be with Nick again. Luckily no one had noticed Coach's stomach so it made it faster for them to make it back to where Nick was at.

"Ellis, look what Coach has…" Rochelle said just as she entered the room, but the moment she saw Nick by himself she started to panic, "Shit! Coach, hurry up and revive Nick! Ellis isn't here!"

"What do you mean he ain't here? He…oh…" Coach said closing the door behind him.

"We have to find him, Coach and Nick is the only one that can talk some sense into him!" Rochelle said rushing forward and dropping to her knees beside Nick and moved him so he could be lying down on the floor.

"No…you don't think…" Coach said starting to look horrified as he brought out the defibrillator and health kit.

"Ellis never would have left Nick alone like this, Coach." Rochelle told him as she picked up the health kit, opened it, and put it down next to her.

Rochelle quickly took off Nick's jacket and shirt before she removed the bullet that was still in Nick's chest and then sewed the wound back up. As soon as she was done she moved out of the way so that Coach could kneel down in front of Nick. Coach placed the paddles on Nick's chest and watched as electricity coursed through his entire body. Nick gasped in pain as he opened his eyes and then quickly shut them. Coach placed the used defibrillator to the side.

"What the fuck?" Nick said placing his hand over his chest.

"Um, Nick? It's great to see that you're ok, but we've got a problem." Rochelle said watching as he slowly started to sit up.

Nick sighed as he grabbed his shirt and started putting it back on. He looked around and frowned slightly.

"Where's Ellis? Last thing I remember is him banging on the wall and then him screaming out my name." Nick asked.

"We don't know." Rochelle admitted.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'? He was here with you guys!" Nick said starting to get agitated.

"We only left the room to go get Coach's defibrillator because Ellis was taking your death really hard and by the time we got back he was gone." Rochelle told him.

Nick looked at her in alarm.

"How hard is really hard?"

"He kept trying to get you to respond to him and then he started crying and apologizing and well…" Rochelle bit her lip.

"Well what?" Nick asked putting his jacket back on.

"The boy had mentioned how much you helped him and how he had never helped you. Then he said that he should've been the one to die not you and he's blaming himself for your death." Coach told him.

Nick turned completely white.

"Shit! Where do you think he went?" Nick asked wincing in pain as soon as he stood up.

"Well we were gone like ten minutes so hopefully not that far." Rochelle said.

"I gotta tell you though he was really broken up about you, Nick. He even kissed you and then started cryin worse then he was before." Coach told him.

Nick was too busy worrying about what Ellis was going to do to notice that his face had turned red.

"We have to get to him now!" Nick said.

"But, Nick we don't even know which way he went!" Rochelle said worriedly.

"I do know one thing; Ellis really wanted to be with Nick again so he ain't gunna be here in the building." Coach replied.

"Grab the pistols on the table and lets go! We'll have to look for more weapons somewhere else." Nick said grabbing one and putting it in his pocket.

"So much for being rescued." Coach sighed, "Looks like we're gunna kill zombies until the day we die."

'Fuck, Ellis! The moment you figure out that I'm gone you decide that you want to follow me. I swear I always have to fucking look after you to make sure you don't do anything stupid! You better fucking still be ok, overalls!' Nick thought to himself.

Author's note: I think the next chapter might be the last one. I was kinda wondering if this should of ended up being a tragedy or not, but once again I decided no. I'm still not sure of what im going to do about another story, but it might not be for awhile because of school. I want to thank all the people who reviewed my story. I really hadn't expected to get so many reviews since at the beginning I didn't get any lol I really appreciated your feedback whether it was about my story or grammar it was just nice to know I have fans! ^^ that also goes to anyone who's favorited it, story alerted, or was the one who put it in a community. If it hadn't been for you guys this story probably would have been discontinued along time ago. Thank you so much!


	16. End

The Unforgiven

By: esmtz

Ellis had no idea where he was going. All he knew was that he wanted to find a zombie that could easily and very painfully take care of him. He was still having trouble breathing as he walked past a couple of buildings from the city that the zombies had managed to take over. Ellis kept thinking about what he had said to Nick. It was killing him to know that Nick died thinking that he hated him. He stumbled slightly as he felt himself starting to feel dizzy.

_ "You don't think about anyone but yerself! You would have left us all to die if it wasn't for the fact that you needed us to keep you alive! I don't even know why the fuck I saved you from falling off the bridge considerin you definitely would have done that to any one of us!" Ellis had yelled._

Nick had looked at him obviously hurt by what he had said and remembering the look on his face only made Ellis want to throw up.

'Describes me more then it does him.' Ellis thought remembering how he had been the one abandoning Nick.

_"Ellis, Nick wanted me to tell you that he was sorry about what he told you. He didn't mean any of it. He just thought that you hating him would make it easier for you to deal once he was gone. Also, he's not mad at you, sweetie. He really wanted you to know that. He also wanted to tell you how proud he was of you for being able to stand up for yourself the way you did." Rochelle said._

'I don't get it. How the hell was he not mad at me? All I did was yell at him and accuse him of bein a selfish asshole.' Ellis thought to himself sadly.

Ellis started shaking again as the image of Nick's lifeless body came back into his mind. He kept trying to get air into his body, but he was still struggling as he shut his eyes tight and came to a stop next to an old store. He leaned against it for support.

'Well if a zombie doesn't kill me mah body sure will.' Ellis thought while trying to think about something else other then Nick.

He couldn't do it. All he could think about was Nick's dead body and himself kissing him hoping to get some kind of reaction from him. Ellis opened his eyes as he forced himself to keep going as he already started to feel himself break down again.

"I can't do it, Nick. I can't keep goin let alone breathe without you." Ellis said already thinking about what Nick would have told him if he was there with him.

Ellis could almost hear him in his head making him smile slightly.

"I really wanted to tell you how much I loved you instead of sayin the things I said. I just wish you knew that I don't hate you, Nick."

Ellis sighed as his vision started to darken. He could barely make out the sounds of someone crying and he assumed that a witch was nearby. He started walking where he thought he heard the cries coming from. It didn't take long for the others to figure out which way Ellis had went. They had found his hat on the other side of the fence and immediately climbed over it.

"I'm surprised no ones out here like they were when we got here." Rochelle said watching as Nick picked up the hat.

"The only reason all those people were out here earlier was because there was quite a few rescue vehicles makin their way to the station. I suppose now they're not expectin anyone else." Coach told her.

"How the hell does he not notice that he dropped his hat?" Nick whispered to himself.

"Nick?" Rochelle asked.

Nick shook his head.

"I'm just surprised that he left his hat here."

"Maybe he didn't notice." Rochelle said.

"That's what worries me. He wouldn't go anywhere without it." Nick said as he put it inside his jacket pocket.

"At least we know where the boy went. It looks like they sectioned this part off probably because of the zombies." Coach said looking at all the deserted buildings that were ahead of them.

"Why else would they do that?" Rochelle replied.

"Look just check out the first few buildings for guns alright? Catch up to me when you're done. I'm going after Ellis." Nick told them before he started running.

"He's right. We need to make this quick. Let's just stay together you got that baby girl?" Coach asked looking at her.

Rochelle nodded.

"No need to tell me twice."

Lucky enough for them they managed to find an assault rifle and a combat shotgun inside the first house they went in.

"I'm taking the assault rifle." Rochelle said picking it up.

"I'm going with the combat shotgun." Coach replied.

"Ok let's hurry to catch up with Nick."

"It ain't gunna be a problem with all the yellin he's doin." Coach said sighing, "He's gunna alert all the zombies to us."

"I think that might be the least of our problems, Coach." Rochelle told him.

They left the house and made their way to Nick who hadn't gotten very far and instead was standing in the middle of the road calling out Ellis's name.

"Boy, yellin for him ain't gunna help one bit. He's probably not gunna hear you." Coach told him.

"What makes you think that Ellis won't hear me, Coach?" Nick asked angrily.

"Nick, he wasn't hearing us when we tried to talk to him. His only concern was to get you to look and talk to him, but now that he thinks that you're dead he's probably going to think he's imagining it." Rochelle replied.

"So how the fuck are we supposed to find him?"

They heard a noise coming from nearby making them aware of the fact that they were close to a witch. Her cries started to turn into growls and without a second thought they ran inside the building that they thought the witch was in. Nick's eyes went wide with fear when he saw that Ellis was on the floor unconscious and the witch was just about to tear into him.

"ELLIS! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Nick yelled menacingly as he ran towards them.

The witch managed to start tearing into him, blood going everywhere, before Nick kicked her hard enough to make her stumble backwards.

"Nick, move!" Coach yelled.

Nick moved out of the way to let Coach and Rochelle shoot at her. He watched as she gave one last cry and then went towards Ellis and fell to his knees beside him. Nick swallowed.

"Oh god, Ellis…" Nick whispered.

Nick gently lifted Ellis into his arms and cradled him with his left arm while lightly tapping at his face with his right hand.

"Ellis, wake up. It's me Nick. I'm right here." Nick said.

To his relief Ellis groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He looked up at him and a huge smile spread across his face.

"Nick."

Nick laughed.

"Yeah, overalls it's me."

Ellis's smile didn't last long as he instead looked at him with sadness in his eyes.

"I'm sorry…" Ellis whispered.

"For what, Ellis?" Nick asked looking at him worriedly.

"For sayin all that stuff that I said about you. Yer not selfish and I know you never would have left any of us to die. Nick, I didn't want you to…" Ellis's eyes were filling up with tears.

"Overalls, hey I already know all that." Nick told him giving him a small smile.

"Y-Yer not mad?"

"Why would I be? I was the one who was trying to get you mad at me not the other way around."

"Still I shouldn't have said what I said. If anyone deserves that accusation it should've been me. I was the one who almost left you to die, Nick and I also know that I never really helped out when y'all needed it especially you." Ellis said wincing in pain as he felt himself grow tired.

Nick shook him slightly as he put his right hand over Ellis's wound.

"Stay with me, Ellis. First off Coach was the one who wanted to leave me behind. Second you did help us out, man. With all the pain pills and helping us when we were getting attacked you helped us out a lot." Nick told him.

"It didn't feel like it. It felt a lot more like I was being a burden." Ellis replied sadly.

"You were never a burden."

"But you always had to look after me. I was always gettin mahself into trouble."

"You want to know why, Ellis? It's because I wanted to. Normally I hate kids, but you're different." Nick said.

"I ain't no kid, Nick!" Ellis said turning red.

"Yes you are, overalls considering you don't know how to take care of yourself." Nick replied half joking and half serious.

Ellis didn't reply as he felt himself grow more tired. He started to close his eyes as he felt Nick shaking him again.

"Ellis, don't." Nick said as he slightly started to panic.

"Don't what, Nick?" Ellis whispered.

Nick hesitated.

"Nick?"

"Don't you fucking dare die on me!" Nick replied his voice quivering.

Ellis frowned.

"What are you talkin about? Aren't we already…"

"No, overalls. Rochelle and Coach brought me back with the defibrillator. We barely got here just in time before that fucking bitch could really hurt you. What the fuck were you thinking, Ellis?" Nick asked.

Ellis looked up at him wide eyed.

"Really yer alive?" Ellis asked.

Nick sighed.

"Yes I'm…"

Ellis had suddenly sat up, turned around, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Nick pulled back and looked at him in horror.

"Ellis, your wound!"

Blood was starting to come out again pretty fast as Nick tried to get Ellis to lie down again.

"Lie back down, Ellis or you're going to bleed out!" Nick told him before turning to see where Coach and Rochelle went, "Coach!"

"I don't care, Nick. I'm just so happy to see that yer alive!" Ellis smiled tears running down his face from both the pain and how happy he was feeling.

"Well I do otherwise bringing me back would have been totally pointless!" Nick told him.

Ellis frowned.

"Why would you say that, Nick?"

"Because I have no reason to be here if you're gone, Ellis!" Nick replied.

"Well sure you do. You've got Ro. Sorry I guess I was just so excited I didn't think before I kissed you." Ellis blushed, "I just…needed you to be with me, Nick. I couldn't breathe without you here and I ended up passin out right here just as I saw the witch."

"Ellis, if that fucking witch had killed you I don't…" Nick sighed, "I don't know what I would have done."

"Well, nuthin. Ro would have…"

"You don't get it do you? I don't care about her like the way I do about you. Please just lie back down."

Ellis looked at him worried and nodded.

"Ok. Nick?"

Nick sighed.

"Yeah?"

"I love you. I just wanted you to know that so please…don't leave me like that again." Ellis said turning red as he started to lie back down on the floor.

Before he could completely lie back down Nick grabbed him, held him in his arms, and kissed him.

"As long as you stay with me, overalls." Nick replied smiling at Ellis's flushed face.

Ellis nodded before Nick gently laid him back down on the floor. They continued kissing just as Coach and Rochelle re-entered the room both of them carrying a health kit. Rochelle smiled at them as she left her health kit in the room before both her and Coach left again. Nick pulled away from him and smiled at him.

"Don't get used to me saying this all the time, but I love you too." Nick said.

Ellis smiled at him.

"Hey, uh are you gunna get that?" Ellis asked nodding in the direction of the health kit.

"Yeah and as soon as you're feeling better and once we find an actual place to stay in without all the zombies attacking us…"

"Hell yeah! Let's do it!"

Nick laughed as he got up and went to get the health kit.

"Easy there, overalls. I said once you're feeling better."

"I'm feelin better already!" Ellis replied.

Nick snorted.

"Yeah right. Now keep still while I fix you up."

"I'm serious, Nick!"

"Ellis."

"Ok." Ellis sighed.

"By the way, overalls I'm not letting you out of my sight while we're still out here." Nick told him.

"Well I'm gunna be the one to heal you from now on too." Ellis replied.

"I don't have a problem with that."

The End

Author's note: The story is finally over. I pretty much already said what I wanted to say in my last chapter so I guess this is goodbye. Unless I can't come up with anything for a different game, TV show, movie, etc I'll probably do another l4d story. Anyway bye.

esmtz aka Sarah


End file.
